Maybe, Possibly
by zanessalovex33
Summary: One week was all it took. One week for Gabriella to fall for Troy. However, falling for Troy wasn't as easy as it seems. Not when she's already engaged to another man and he's named the hottest bachelor. She does whatever it takes to not fall for him.
1. Chapter 1

**Wow. I haven't posted a story in a long time! I don't know, but I just had the muse to write another story and this idea came to my head. I'm really proud of this story and I hope you all will like it. As for my last story that is incomplete, that one will be on hiatus for a while until I can find a muse for it. Until then, please enjoy this new story and review!**

**ALL RIGHTS GOES TO DISNEY!**

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><p>"Miss Montez, your fiancé is on the phone."<p>

Gabriella Montez turned her head away from the skyline view below her office in New York. Being on the 50th floor of Sparkle Fashion Industry gives everyone the perks of seeing the other buildings below. The sunrise or sunset shining over New York was breathtaking from the office. When it rained, the city looked terrible. Whenever it shined, the skyline and Central Park could not look any better. Today was particularly a beautiful day in New York City- with the sun shining brightly and the streets filled with taxis and people. A beautiful day meant that Gabriella was a happy girl and when there was a happy Gabriella, it meant it was a good day at work.

"Put him on line 1, thank you Danielle," Gabriella said to her personal assistant. The tall and skinny blonde girl nodded her head once before closing the door as she exited. The red light on her phone set blinked almost immediately after Danielle's departure and Gabriella stared at the red blinking light. It was like the light was burning Gabriella's eyes. She knew she had to pick up the phone call, but she did whatever she could to delay her phone conversation with her fiancé.

Noah Grayson was a powerful businessman, billionaire, and successful. Noah had control of anything and anyone he wanted. If he didn't get it the first time, he will get it the second time. No one dared to cross him or turn his or her back against him. Especially Gabriella.

Pressing the red button and then the talk button, Gabriella picked up the phone from the receiver and pressed it against her ear. "Hello?"

"Hi baby, I was just calling to remind you of our reservations at [i]Masa[/i] for seven thirty tonight. It's important that you make it on time, I'm having the car sent to pick you up okay?"

Gabriella lifted her left hand to her face to look at the shiny and sparkly silver ring with a large diamond in the middle. If the sun hit the ring directly, it could blind anyone within a five feet range. She remembered the engagement like it was yesterday.

_Knock knock._

"_Come in, I'm not busy right now."_

_Danielle walked through the doors holding an envelope in her hand with Gabriella's name printed on the front. "From your boyfriend," she spoke as she handed it to Gabriella._

_Gabriella accepted the envelope and opened it as her assistant left. _

_ Gabriella-_

_ Meet me on the roof in ten minutes._

_ Love,_

_ Noah_

_Gabriella looked at the time and then back at the letter. What could he possible want? Deciding to go early, she grabbed her jacket and headed up to the 60__th__ floor and then to the roof. The moment the elevator opened to the roof, lights and candles were set up everywhere. In the middle of it all stood her boyfriend of two years. A smile spread across Gabriella's face when she saw him standing there countering her smile. "What is all of this Noah?" she asked._

_Noah simply stared at her for a moment, taking in all her beauty beneath the stars. He got down on one knee and took the ring out of his jacket. Opening the box, he glanced up at her. "Gabriella, the moment I met you, I knew you were the one for me. I don't think I can spend the rest of my life without you. Will you marry me?"_

_The moment she saw the ring, the waters formed in her eyes and she felt a tear fall from her eyes and onto her cheek. She knew he was talking, but she didn't really listen. All she could do was freak out that there was a ring for her. When no one spoke, she realized he was waiting for her answer. "Yes!" she said as she bent down to kiss him. He took the ring out and placed it on her finger._

"_I love you Gabriella."_

"_I love you too."_

One year later, everything changed. The man, whom she fell in love with, turned into a monster. When he took over the executive position at his business, he changed for the worst. He took money from innocent people and abused his position as head executive. It was like his job got to his head and turned him into someone everyone once loved to someone everyone fears. He even changed towards Gabriella for the worst as well. That was when she knew being engaged at such a young age was a stupid mistake. He forced Gabriella to cut everyone from her life to focus on her job now and their life together. He made sure Gabriella came straight home after work and got a ride to work every morning. Whenever she wanted to take a breather and go shopping, he'd force her to go with a bodyguard. It was like he was sucking her into a world she didn't want to be in. She felt trapped.

"That's fine. I'll see you later Noah, but I have to go. I have a client coming in to talk about some things," Gabriella spoke as she placed her hand back on the table.

"Okay. Knock them dead. If they don't like it, tell me and I'll make sure they'll agree to your business." His voice seemed almost threatening and determined at the same time. "I love you."

"Love you too," Gabriella said almost too forcefully. She placed the phone back on the receiver and sat down in her chair. At times like these, she needed a couple minutes to herself. Gabriella slid her face into her hand and breathed deeply. She had to remind her self that everything was going to be fine in the end.

In a few months, she would be Mrs. Grayson. In a few months, she would be the wife of a man who she didn't love anymore. At the age of 23 She needed to getaway for a little bit- running away was not an option since her fiancé would have a team looking for her. The next best thing she could have was a week getaway. It would be easy to take off of work, but to convince her fiancé would be the difficult part.

"Danielle get in here!"

The blonde quickly pushed the door open and stood in front of Gabriella's desk. "Get Taylor McKessie on line 2 for me please," Gabriella knew that Danielle would have a surprised look on her face.

"I don't think Mr. Gray-"

"I don't care, just get her on the other line. Now." When Gabriella wanted to be demanding, she could. Danielle quickly left the room and left Gabriella waiting. Once the phone light turned on, Gabriella took a few deep breaths and pressed the talk button.

"Gabs? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just…I don't know if I can go through with this marriage anymore Tay."

Taylor McKessie was Gabriella's best friend since she was little. Although her fiancé told her to cut everyone out from her life, she stayed in touch with Taylor behind his back. When she would go into work, she'd call her best friend. That was the only time she could talk to her without her fiancé being suspicious. Taylor and Gabriella had split ways when Taylor got into Stanford and Gabriella went to New York University, but their distance never broke their friendship.

"Everything will be fine Gabs, I know Noah sucks but you're a strong girl. All you have to do is tell him you don't love him anymore and you're free."

"It's not that easy Tay, he'll find a way to make my life miserable. He'll take my job and everything I own. I don't know what happened to him. I loved him once and I love him now but not enough to marry him. I just wish…I just…" Gabriella's voice trailed.

"You just what?"

"I just wish I could turn back time and went to Stanford with you." The tears began falling from her eyes as she spoke to her best friend.

There was silence on the only end for a split second. "Stanford wouldn't have made you happy. You went to a school that helped you land the job now. You're living your dream Gabs. It's unfortunate that you met a guy who ended up being a bad guy."

Gabriella ran her hand through her hair and let out an uneven sigh. "I wish I could come stay with you for a week. It would be nice to getaway from Noah for a week and my life here."

"Why don't you? Just tell your fiancé that you have a business trip in California. We can rent out a beach house and you can relax and tell me about your life in New York. If he wants proof that you're going on a business trip, I know someone who's good at hacking and all that fun stuff."

Gabriella bit her lip. That idea didn't sound bad at all. She was already thinking of doing a mini getaway from Noah. But now that her best friend wanted her to fly out, she was all for it. "You know what Tay? That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea. I'll have something set up and I'll talk to you as soon as I figure it out."

"Sounds good, I can't wait to see you."

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><p>"Two seconds left on the clock and the Lakers are down by 2. Does Troy Bolton have the skills to win the entire game or tie it? This game is riding on their championship. They need to win this to advance to the finals to take on the Boston Celtics."<p>

"I don't know Howard. This might be the first time he's in this position. With twenty-six points, two more would look amazing on stats. But stats is nothing unless you win."

Troy Bolton sat on the bench as his coach began scribbling a play on his white board. All he could focus on was the scoreboard. Down by two with two seconds. It was do or die. The crowd was expecting to win, and he could let his team in Los Angeles down. Not when they made it this far.

"Troy, are you paying attention?"

He snapped his focus back onto the whiteboard as his coach and teammates all huddled together. The loud noise of the music and yelling of the crowd made it hard to hear the coach. Troy could see the LA dancers in the middle of the court dancing to a song that was playing. Cameras and wires are all over the place and in Troy's face. He did what he could to ignore all the people, but it was difficult.

"Can you do this Troy? It's your shot."

A smirk appeared on his face. A smirk that was all too familiar. It was the smirk that allowed everyone to know that he was confident and skilled enough to do anything he wanted; a smirk that some girls loved, and a smirk that some people despised. Troy and the rest of the team stood up and did their little handshakes. Troy walked to the middle of the court where his team would be throwing the ball in.

The referee's whistle blew and the cheering got loud. Troy quickly ran over to the ball to take a screen before running back towards the three-point line. His teammate over handed the ball over to Troy in the corner and once Troy caught the ball, he quickly shot it from behind the three-point line. It wasn't what the coach drew up, but it was what Troy wanted. The entire arena hushed as the ball went up in the air. The team bench got up as they watched the ball fly over to the hoop. Midway in the air, the final horn sounded and half a second later, the ball went through the hoop and made a swish sound. Troy had won the game. Cheers erupted throughout the entire arena and the team swarmed to Troy, tackling him to the ground.

"LAKERS WIN! LAKERS WIN! THEY'RE GOING TO THE FINALS ON THE LAST SECOND THREE-POINTER BY TROY BOLTON! OH MY GOD! THIS IS THE NBA, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN!"

Troy managed to get out of the pile he was in and grinned at the entire crowd. They all clapped and jumped for him as he made his way to the locker room.

"Troy! Can we have a quick interview please?"

An interview wouldn't hurt. Besides, he was on top of the world right now and nothing could bring him down.

"So tell me why you decided to go for the three when you could have easily tied it with a layup?"

"Go big or go home. I wanted to let the fans know that I'm going to win the game for them. It shouldn't have gone to seven games, but since it did, I couldn't let them down," Troy let his shoulders shrug.

"Is that what your coach drew up on the board?"

Troy smirked and shook his head. "No, and I'm sure he'll lecture me later. But he'll be thanking me soon enough." Troy's ego was pretty bad when it came to basketball, but he did not care. He had a reason to be cocky and he was planning on keeping it that way.

"Thank you Troy, go enjoy your win with your team." Troy shook hands with the man who interviewed him before running towards the locker room. He tossed his armband into the crowd and watched as two people fought over it.

"Troy! That was awesome dude!" Chad Danforth ruffled Troy's hair to mess it up. "I can't believe you made that three!"

Troy chuckled and took off his jersey before hanging it up in his locker. "I knew it was going in the moment it released from my hands. There was no way I was letting them beat us again. Not in our house! Let's go out and celebrate tonight!"

"I wish, but my lady is waiting for me at home. Maybe tomorrow! I'm pretty sure you can find a few ladies to take out with you," Chad said as Troy laughed. Troy was a womanizer and everyone in America knew that. Last year, he was voted the number one Hottest Bachelor voted by the women in America. He was also voted the Top Sexiest Man as well. He was never a one-woman man and didn't plan on it either. No one really minded that as long as they had a few hours with the magnificent Troy Bolton.

"You're right. I'll just go party with a few other guys and go home with a couple of ladies," Troy grinned as the two of them changed before going to their press conference.

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><p><strong>AN: I know it starts out a bit slow, but I wanted you all to get the feel of what each character's life is like. It'll get better, I promise! Please please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you all so much for reviewing the story. It makes me feel a lot better and motivates me to continue writing! Here's the next chapter, this is pretty much a filler chapter, I'll post chapter 3 sooner than it took to post this chapter. So read, enjoy, and review please! **

**All right goes to Disney.**

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><p>Chapter 2:<p>

The sky began getting dark and streets were getting busier. Gabriella was beginning to finish up at the office before meeting her fiancé at the restaurant for dinner. She made sure her desk was tidied and her personal belongings were locked up. Most of the employees have already headed home while others stayed late to get some other work done. She looked at the time on her watch and knew that the car would arrive for her soon. "Danielle can you come in here please?" she called for her through the phone receiver. Within seconds, her assistant walked through the door. "Please let me know when the car gets here and have these papers sent out tomorrow morning," she handed Danielle a stack of paper.

She finished in her office and sat down waiting for the car to arrive. She had to plan how to tell Noah that she was going away on a trip for work when really she was going to visit Taylor. There was no way that Noah was going to buy a story about a business trip being far. He'd have someone fly out there with her to keep an eye on her at all times. She desperately needed this getaway if she was going to end up marrying Noah in the future.

"Gabriella, the car is here," her assistant said through the phone. Gabriella grabbed her purse and some paperwork before heading down to the lobby where her car awaited. Every level she went down, she wished the elevator would get stuck so she didn't have to go to dinner with him, but unfortunately the elevator reached the bottom floor and it was time for her to get out. The black Range Rover sat outside and when she walked out, the driver got out of the car to open the car for her. It was typical of her fiancé to not pick her up from work.

Noah had not done anything for her in the past couple of months. Whenever she asked for something, he'd have his assistant do it for her or would make her do it herself. Whenever she was running late and needed a favor from him, he'd find a way to get out of it. It was to a point where she had to give up completely on him.

Before he got his job as the executive, he would have done anything for her. When she needed him, he'd be there in a second. When she wanted something, he would have it for her in a second. She was really in love with him at one point. She thought he was the perfect guy for her, but when she saw the real him, she had fallen out of love. It was unfortunate that she couldn't get out of her engagement with the bad man.

The car pulled up to the restaurant and Gabriella walked in. Of course she arrived before her fiancé. The hostess sat her down at an exclusive table and handed her a menu. She looked up at the time and noticed it was ten minutes past their meeting time. She was actually hoping that he wouldn't show up, so she could go home and sleep. She spoke to soon however when her fiancé all dressed up in a suit came walking in with a smile on his face.

"Hey babe," he said as he kissed her on the forehead. She gave him a faint smile and waited for him to sit down. "Sorry I'm late, I had to talk with a couple of clients before I headed out," he looked at the waitress when she handed him the menu. "One bottle of your finest wine please," he said as she left. "How was work?" he asked.

Gabriella placed the napkin on her lap and shrugged, "It was okay, kind of slow but I got some things done," she said.

"Good. Good," he said as the waitress came over and poured them their glasses of wine. "Look, I have to meet with a couple of clients after dinner, so can you head home alone? Or I can send John to make sure things are okay around the house until I get home," he said.

A big relief rushed through Gabriella as she shook her head, "no it's fine, and I'll be fine alone. I'm just going to head off to bed anyways," she said. She actually hoped her fiancé never came home, in fact she hoped the meeting went on until the next morning but that was a long shot. "Speaking of meetings," she began. This was it, she was going to tell her fiancé she was leaving for a week for 'work'. "Next week, there's this big opportunity to meet with a couple of designers in California, they want to look at Sparkle clothing and maybe, possibly buy a few of our items," she said as she hoped he wouldn't shut her idea down.

"California? Why can't they come to you?" he asked as he drank his wine.

Gabriella nervously picked up her glass and drank it before answering him, "because I want to sell them my product and if I come to them, I think they'll appreciate it more. It's a big opportunity to expand my business to the west coast," she pleaded. It was ridiculous how she had to ask for his permission.

He sighed, "one week?" he asked her.

"Yeah, one week. I'll be fine, I'll even hire someone to watch after me there, I promise," she told him and forced herself to smile.

Noah blinked a couple of times, as he stayed silent for a few minutes. "Fine," he finally said. "Only because I want you to be successful like me," he said and finished his glass of wine. "Let's eat." Noah picked up the menu and skimmed to find something to order.

She had to contain herself from rolling her eyes so instead she smiled at him, "it will be successful, I can promise you that." She was surprised he had agreed to let her go to California, but she wasn't going to question it, especially not when she was able to see her best friend next week.

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><p>"He said yes? You're kidding!" Taylor cheerfully said as she sat down next to Chad on the couch. "Of course, I'll have the beach house rented tonight. I can't wait to see you Gabs…but okay, goodnight," she hung up the phone and burst into cheer. She hugged Chad who was sitting next to her watching some basketball films. "She's coming! She's coming!" Taylor excitedly said.<p>

"Who's coming?" Troy asked as he walked out of the kitchen and over to the couch next to Chad's.

Taylor still had the biggest grin on her face as she spoke to Troy, "Gabriella, my best friend! You might remember her from high school, maybe not but she's coming and there's nothing her fiancé can do about it because he doesn't know!" she said.

Troy raised his eyebrow. The name, he didn't recognize but if he saw her face, he surely would remember. "Name doesn't ring a bell, were me and her friends in high school?" he asked.

"No, you and me weren't even friends in high school so for sure you and her weren't," Taylor said.

Chad looked at Taylor and then at Troy, "she cut us all out of her life when her fiancé forced her to, so I haven't talked to her in a while, but Taylor told me what happened. I feel bad for the girl," Chad said and shrugged.

"Seems to me like she's whipped over the boy," Troy said as he popped a piece of candy into his mouth.

"More like she's stuck," Taylor said as she cuddled up next to Chad. "Anyways, it doesn't matter. She's coming next week and we're all going to the beach house for a week since you guys have a week vacation before you go back to practice. I'll call the others and inform them what's going on," Taylor picked up her iPhone as she dialed a few of her friends' number.

"Is Sharpay going to be okay with her coming?" Chad asked.

Sharpay and Gabriella stopped being friends after Gabriella cut her out of her life, but Sharpay didn't pick up her follow up phone call to let her know what was going on. Her attempts to Sharpay stopped after the hundredth time, but Taylor hoped they could work things out when they saw each other.

"Is this girl cute?" Troy whispered to Chad.

Chad looked at Taylor who was talking away on the phone before he turned back to Troy. "You seriously don't remember what she looks like?" he asked as he stood up. He walked over to the bookshelf to pull out an old yearbook. He flipped to the page Gabriella was on and pointed to her. "This is her," he said as he looked at Troy.

Troy smirked at the glasses and braces that she had on. Her hair had been in pigtails and she seemed like she was wearing an ugly shirt. "Now I see why I don't recognize her face," he said and grinned. "I was hoping she'd be hot so I could hook up with her over the week," Troy added.

Chad punched his friend and closed the yearbook. "You're not hooking up with Gabriella, first of all she's in a relationship and second of all, she's Taylor's best friend and Taylor would kill the both of us," he said.

"Well you don't have anything to worry about, she's not even my type. I like cute girls," Troy said.

Chad rolled his eyes and grabbed a magazine off the shelf. He had to flip over a couple of pages until he found a page and showed it to Troy. "This is what she looks like now," he said.

Troy's jaw literally dropped when he saw the new picture of Gabriella. "She's hot!" Troy said and grabbed the magazine from Chad. "This is Gabriella? I've seen her picture before. She's like some big time person in New York's fashion," he said and stared at the image. "I'd do her," Troy grinned as he looked up at Chad.

Chad punched him again and took the magazine from Troy. "Don't even think about it," he said as he put the magazine away.

"Damn…sucks that she's taken," Troy said.

"When has that stopped you?" Chad asked with a smirk.

Troy grinned at Chad's question. Both of them knew the answer to that one. It definitely was going to be a good week.

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><p>"Call me as soon as you land alright?"<p>

"I will," she said as she grabbed her luggage from the car. The JFK airport was busier than ever and Gabriella had to leave early to make sure she wouldn't miss her flight. She wasn't going to let traffic stop her from getting her freedom for a week.

"Alright, I love you Gabs."

"You too, bye," she hung up the phone and turned to the driver. "Thank you for taking me," she said to him as he nodded his head and left. Of course her own fiancé couldn't take her to the airport, but she didn't mind too much. Once the driver left and Gabriella went inside, she had to go through security and get her first class ticket.

In a couple of hours, she'd be in the sunny state of California, where most of her friends lived. She couldn't wait to see them again and hug each and every one of them. Noah wasn't going to be there to keep an eye on her or would tell her to stop talking to her friends. If he found out, he'd probably fly out and ruin her life, but as long as she and her friends kept their mouth shut, she would be fine.

"_Flight 342 to Los Angeles airport first call, all first class may board now."_

This was her. A smile came across her face as she dragged her carryon with her onto the plane. She was leaving New York and not once did she look back to see who else was behind her.

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><p><strong>I know it was pretty short, but it'll get longer. Please review!<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**I've decided to upload chapter 3 since chapter 2 was a filler chapter. So enjoy and please please review. It would mean a lot if you'd take the time to review:)**

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><p>CHAPTER 3:<p>

"I invited a few of our other friends to come join us for the week," Taylor mentioned as they drove from LAX to the beach house. Gabriella could not believe that the plan actually worked and she was in California with her best friend. She missed her a lot and spending the week with her would be amazing. The best part was that Noah wouldn't be around to mess her life up. At this point, she didn't care who was going to be there with them as long as Noah wasn't there.

Gabriella was still staring out the window as Taylor talked. She was staring at the palm trees and taking it all in that she was in California. California was a lot different than New York. For one, there was not any palm trees in New York. There were less taxis than there was in New York.

"Gabs? Did you hear me?"

Gabriella quickly looked at her friend and smiled. "Yeah, sorry. I was just taking it all in. I feel like I can breathe normally for a little bit again. But who else is coming?" She hadn't talked to anyone else but Taylor, so she was a little nervous to see what they were going to say to her or if they were going to yell at her for what she did.

"Well, Sharpay is coming, my boyfriend Chad Danforth is coming, Troy is coming, Ryan, Kelsei, and Zeke," Taylor said. "They all miss you Gabs," Taylor said.

Gabriella took in all the names and then her head snapped to one of them. "Troy? As in Troy Bolton?"

Taylor nodded her head, "Yeah…is that a problem?" she asked.

"No, I just didn't know you were friends with him…" Gabriella tucked a strand of her brown curly hair behind her hair and stared out the window again. Troy Bolton. Now that was someone she never expected to hear of ever again after she graduated from high school. In fact, the two of them never spoke in high school but Gabriella had the biggest crush on him. The thing was that Gabriella wasn't in that crowd when she was in high school. She blended in with the rest and having braces didn't help her out one bit or how she didn't wear makeup or did her hair. She was labeled as a nerd until she went to college where she changed her entire image. Now she was a fashion icon and named one of the most beautiful rich women of New York.

"I wasn't, but when Chad and I started dating, we became friends. Those two boys are like two peas and a pod; they go everywhere together so they're coming to this thing. They have a week off before they have to go back to practice to prepare for the finals." Taylor pulled up to a red light and turned to her best friend. "He's nice though, so don't worry."

Gabriella rolled her eyes and looked away from her friend. She had heard stories before about him. The tabloids had a lot to say about him too and she knew the type of guy he was all too well. "I wonder if he knows who I am…or who I was at least," she said and shrugged.

"He said he doesn't remember going to high school with you, but he knows who you are now. I think you two will get along just fine. Just don't bring up anything from the past and you'll be fine," Taylor continued driving as the light turned green. "Sharpay could still be pissed off at you though. She didn't like the fact that you chose your guy over your friendship with her. She doesn't understand why you can talk to me but not her."

"Whoa, she stopped answering my calls. I tried for a while but she screened all my calls. I wanted to explain to her the plan I had when I kept in contact with you, but she took the first conversation to heart apparently. I just hope she can forgive me now," Gabriella regretted not getting Sharpay in the plan fast enough and she missed her friend everyday.

"Well now is your chance to find out. She's here already," Taylor pulled up to the large beach house and a few cars were already parked outside. Gabriella took a deep breath as she grabbed her luggage and headed up to the house with Taylor. Once she walked through the doors, she set her things down and went to look for the others with Taylor. "They must be in the back." Taylor was right as they walked to the back and everyone was sitting in a chair. "Hey guys, look who's here," she moved aside to reveal Gabriella.

Gabriella slightly waved and smiled at her old friends. Kelsi got up quickly and hugged Gabriella. "Gabs!"

Gabriella laughed, "Hey Kels, I've missed you." Followed by Kelsi, Ryan and Zeke came and hugged Gabriella. The only person who didn't hug Gabriella was Sharpay; who was still lounging in her seat. She acted like Gabriella wasn't present. Gabriella sighed and walked over to where Sharpay was. "Hi Shar," Gabriella made the effort.

Silence.

"Sharpay, you can't be mad at me forever. You have to understand that I wasn't trying to cut you off. My fiancé wanted me to so I pretended to. I tried calling you back immediately but you ignored my phone calls. I'm so sorry from the bottom of my heart. You have to know that if I could take it back I would. Our friendship means the world to me." An attempt to fix a friendship was better than nothing and if Sharpay didn't want to accept her apology than she'd have to try harder.

Sharpay removed her sunglasses and looked at Gabriella. Neither of them said anything for a moment until Sharpay smiled. "I'm glad to have you back." With that, the two girls embraced and the others smiled as the two made up.

"Aw isn't that just cute," a voice from inside the house caused all of them to turn around. Gabriella released her hug from Sharpay and stood to see who it was. The figure came into view and it was like the guy had a spotlight on him or something. He was just extremely gorgeous and seeing him now made Gabriella's stomach flop.

"Troy! Finally you guys made it. Where's Chad?" Taylor asked.

Troy kept his eyes on Gabriella as he removed his sunglasses. "He's outside getting the stuff," he responded as he kept his eyes on Gabriella. Walking over to her, he extended his hand towards her. "I'm Troy."

Gabriella looked at his hand and then up at his beautiful face. She swallowed the lump in her throat. "I know, I'm Gabriella. We went to high school together." She extended her hand to shake his.

Troy raised his eyebrow when Gabriella said they attended high school together. "Really now? I'm surprised I don't remember a pretty face like yours," he flashed his infamous smile that made all the girls' heart melt. He knew she went to high school with him since Chad told him, but he liked to play dumb sometimes.

Gabriella couldn't help but to release a laugh. "Does that line work on all the girls?" she asked as she cocked her head to the side.

Troy's smile drop and he took his hand back after shaking hers. "Why don't we go upstairs and I'll let you know?"

Gabriella's smile dropped from her face after his last words. Her expression towards him turned cold as she stepped away. Typical. She should have known Troy was going to say something like that to her; treating her like every other groupie. His forwardness made him less attractive and she was glad that she didn't fall for a guy like him in the first place. He probably wouldn't remember her name tomorrow. "I'm engaged and even if I wasn't, I'd pass."

The group began to snicker as they listened to their conversation. Gabriella turned away and walked into the house and away from Troy.

"Dude I think that's the first girl to ever reject you," Zeke said as he walked over to Troy.

Troy watched as Gabriella disappeared into the house. _She might be engaged, but I'll have her falling for me in no time and I'll have her in bed in no time._ Troy grinned at the thought in his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not going to sweat it. If she wasn't engaged, I'm sure she would have accepted my offer."

Sharpay narrowed her eyes at Troy. "You might be a hotshot, but don't you dare make Gabriella seem like a slut. She's not like that and she would never get into bed with you Troy. Don't get ahead of yourself." Sharpay and Troy had a brother/sister friendship. They watched out for each other, but when it came to Gabriella, Sharpay had her back one hundred percent. "And she's 100 percent engaged, don't do anything stupid to cause her fiancé to come after you. You know how powerful he can be."

He stepped towards the house and peeked inside, letting his eyes wander for a moment. "I'm not scared of him. He can't touch me. Just because he's a big business man in New York doesn't mean he has anything on me." Troy was not going to let some man scare him like that. "Besides, I'm just kidding about hooking up with Gabriella, she's not my type anyways."

Everyone looked at each other before they all started bursting into laughter. "Troy, you don't have a type. A girl with boobs is your type." That caused Troy to grin and shrug.

"You're right."

"Hey! Come inside, we're all here and we're going to open a bottle of wine," Taylor's voice echoed from inside. They all headed inside where Chad and Gabriella were standing around the dining table. Everyone else picked up a glass filled with wine or champagne and waited. Taylor cleared her throat as she stepped onto one of the chairs. "Here's to an amazing week, let all the stress go and just enjoy the moment you have with your friends." She turned to Gabriella, "we've all missed you and we're so glad that you're here right now," she said and lifted her glass. "To an amazing week!" The others followed her movement and lifted the glass and echoed her last words.

Gabriella lifted the cup to her lips and sipped the wine. She looked around at the others and saw that they were all smiling. It was amazing to see her friends all smiling and being happy. She missed that feeling of enjoying life without having to worry about anyone or anything.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

She lifted her cellphone out of her back pocket and her stomach dropped at the name on the receiver. Noah. The others were mingling amongst each other and Gabriella found this the perfect time to slip away to talk to him. She set her wine glass on the table before heading outside to the back.

"Hello?"

"Gabriella? I told you to call me when you landed. You had me worried sick."

"I'm sorry, I just…forgot. There were just so many things going on at once that it slipped my mind."

"Do I have to come out there to make sure you're okay?" he asked.

Gabriella sighed. That was the last thing she wanted. "No, I promise you I'm fine. You'll have to trust that I have everything under control. I have to go, a client is waiting for me," she lied before hanging up the phone. Looking at the phone, she closed her eyes and let the breeze from the ocean take over her mind.

"A client huh?"

The voice startled Gabriella enough to cause her to jump back a little. She quickly turned around and saw Troy standing there. She placed a hand on her heart as she felt her heart racing quickly, "Troy you scared me," she said. The best thing she could do right now was turning around and looking back out at the ocean.

"Why did you lie to your fiancé?" Troy pressed as he walked over to stand next to her.

Gabriella didn't respond his question. There was no way around it even if she tried lying to Troy. "It's none of your business." That was the best answer she could give him right now. She quickly glanced at him as he stood next to her before she turned around and headed back inside where the others were. Forcing herself to smile, she walked in the kitchen where the others were mingling and laughing amongst each other.

"Okay, there are five bedrooms. Me and Chad get the master bedroom, and it's free for all on the rest!" Gabriella grabbed her things and headed up the stairs to find any room. She didn't care which room she stayed in. All that matter was that she was here and away from Noah. Opening one door, she was welcomed by a tanned wall room with a double bed. The blankets were folded nicely at the end of the bed and the pillows were fluffed nicely. She lifted her suitcase onto the bed and sat down at the end of the bed. This felt more like home than her home back in New York City.

"How's your room?"

Gabriella quickly looked up to the sound of the voice and her eyes narrowed almost immediately. "Do you always have to talk to me? It seems like you wait until I'm alone then you begin to talk to me." She stood up and straightened out her shirt before unpacking her things. Whenever she was flustered, she would always have to be doing something.

Troy chuckled and leaned against the doorframe. "I intimidate you, don't I?"

"What? No. Why would you think that?" She neatly folded a couple of her pants and shirts before putting it in the drawers. She hung up her dresses in the closet to keep them from getting wrinkled.

"You're flustered, I can tell."

Gabriella stopped what she was doing and looked up at Troy. As much as she hated to admit, he looked absolutely gorgeous leaning against the doorframe. She shook the thought out of her head, making note to hit herself later for that. "I'm just overwhelmed with a lot of things okay? Now can you go so I can finish unpacking?" she asked him calmly.

Troy leaned away from the doorframe and smiled. "Will do Miss Montez. By the way, I'm your next door neighbor," his thumb pointed over to the door next to hers. "Won't this be exciting?" he grinned before walking off.

Gabriella groaned and sat back down on the bed. She wasn't going to let Troy Bolton ruin her week. She wasn't going to let his player ways get to her head or into her life. Not if she could help it. The only problem was that he was sleeping one wall away.

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><p><strong>Finally they meet! Hopefully you guys liked it! Don't forget to review!<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**All right goes to disney!**

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><p>Chapter 4:<p>

"We're all going out for dinner tonight! Everyone be ready in an hour!" Taylor's voice echoed down the hallway.

Gabriella glanced up to the sound of the voice and smiled slightly at Taylor's attempt to get everyone's attention. It was about five o'clock in the evening and it seemed like everyone was already unpacked and settled in. Gabriella had set her laptop up so she could do business in another city. She had emailed her assistant back and forth to make sure she had everything handled over in New York since she couldn't be there to make sure everything was fine. She trusted Danielle with her business however since they had been friends since college and . There was another knock at the door and she prayed that it wasn't Troy. "Come in," she said as she closed her laptop.

Chad peeked in before walking in. "Hey Gabs, I didn't really get a chance to talk to you." He walked over and hugged her before taking a seat on her bed.

"Hey Chad, I've missed you," a part of her felt bad for cutting him out of her life, but she hoped he'd understand. "Look Chad, I'm sorry for cutting you off, it's just…you know how Noah is," Gabriella said.

Chad put his hands up as if he was telling her to stop. "It's okay, I know. Taylor told me. I'm not mad at you, I've just missed you too," he said. A smile appeared on his face and that helped Gabriella relax a little. She was just glad that no one was mad at her in this house.

She and Troy had been friends since they were in high school. Even though Chad was a popular guy and Gabriella wasn't popular, he still hung around with everyone. They had a lot of classes together and would spend time studying together. It also helped that Chad was secretly in love with Taylor back in high school, but didn't have the guts to ask her out. He would always ask Gabriella advice about her, and when Gabriella would give it to him, he'd always back out at the last minute. They didn't spend much time together out of school since he had basketball and she always had an afterschool activity to do, but once they graduated, they vowed to remain friends.

"How are you? How's basketball? You guys won the other day right?" Gabriella didn't really keep up with basketball since she had no interest, but remembered when she talked to Taylor and how happy she was.

"Yeah we did, it's amazing. We have to go back to practice next week and then we have the finals," Chad said. "It's nerve racking, but with Troy leading the team, I'm sure we can pull through."

"Troy. He's a character isn't he? He's really living up to the bachelor name," she said.

Chad let out a small laugh before shaking his head. "He does. I won't be surprise if he brings home a girl tonight."

Gabriella rolled her eyes and turned away from Chad. "That's so gross, I don't understand how girls can put themselves out like that for him, and I don't know why he's okay with sleeping around," she said.

"He's a guy and he's a celebrity athlete. Any girl wouldn't pass up that opportunity," Chad said as he shrugged his shoulders. Chad stood up from the bed and stretched, "Anyways, I have to get ready, as should you. See you in an hour Gabs," he began walking towards the door. He stopped before he left. "And Gabs? Glad to have you back even if it's only for a week," he said with a smile and left.

Opening her closet, she looked for something to wear. She had an outfit for every occasion, but since they were going out tonight, she grabbed a nice white blouse with a high waist skirt. With that outfit, she grabbed her black pumps and curled her hair. After she finished getting dressed, she put on her necklace and bracelets that went with the outfit. She picked up the ring from the desk and stared at the engagement ring for a bit before slipping it on her finger.

This time instead of knocking, someone walked into her room. "Hey can you help me with this," Troy asked.

"Have you ever heard of knocking?" she asked as she walked over and helped him with his tie. She wasn't aware of how close they were standing together, but once she did, she quickly did his tie and backed off. "There," she said and turned back around to pretend like she was still getting ready. They were too close to each other for her own comfort. The last time she was ever this close to a guy was when she was with Noah.

"Hey Gabi?"

Gabi? She's never had that name before. She turned around and crossed her arm. "What?" she asked. She couldn't lie, he looked damn good when he was dressed up in nice clothing.

"You look good," he flashed a grin that made her stomach jump. Troy left the room, closing the door behind him. Gabriella exhaled and shook her head before fixing her hair in the mirror. She needed to learn to lock the door.

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><p>Dinner went by as quick as a breeze. Everyone spent their time catching up with one another and talked about what was going on in their lives at the moment. Sharpay had a lot of questions for Gabriella about her job back in New York. Gabriella was reluctant to answer the questions, as she didn't want to talk about it, but did her best to answer Sharpay. They had reservations in downtown Los Angeles and once they were done, the group pondered on what to do. "Well, we can always go to the club," Sharpay suggested.<p>

"That actually sounds like a fantastic idea," Troy piped up and grinned.

Taylor rolled her eyes at Troy, "You know you want to go just so you can find a girl to bring home." The others laughed, except for Gabriella who didn't find his playboy ways funny one bit.

"I actually think I'm going to head back to the room, I'm a little jetlagged and need some sleep," Gabriella said.

"I'll head back with you," Taylor said as she turned to Chad, "you can go out if you want. I trust you," she said and smiled.

Chad kissed Taylor on the lips and grinned. "And that's why I love you," she said. The group split ways while Taylor and Gabriella took a taxi back to the beach house.

"I don't get why you guys let Troy act like that," Gabriella blurted.

Taylor laughed and looked at her best friend, "you learn to get use to it after a while," she said.

"Well I don't like it, I think that's completely inappropriate and disgusting," she said.

Her friend looked at her and raised her eyebrow slightly. It was weird how Gabriella continued to talk about Troy like she cared about the guy. She understood that what Troy does sometimes was wrong, but she never went as far as calling the guy disgusting. She wasn't sure if there was something going on between Gabriella and Troy, but as far as she knew, Gabriella hated the guy. Deciding to change the subject, she brought up her fiancé. "So how has Noah been?" she asked. The two of them never really talked about Noah. Taylor never liked Noah from the first moment she met him, and Noah never really liked Taylor either.

"I don't even know, I don't spend time with him at all anymore. It's more like; I go home and go straight to bed so I can avoid talking to him. Sometimes he'll be home before me and then I'm screwed, but other than that I barely talk to him. When we went to dinner; the time I told him I was coming here, was our longest conversation in a while," she said. Gabriella missed the old times when she and Noah would stay up late talking to each other about everything. It was when he didn't have the executive job position. Noah would always wait for her to come home late and he'd make her food before the two of them sit on the couch drinking wine and eating their food. Life was a lot easier then than it was now. She wished she could turn back time and wished Noah never got that position.

Taylor put her arm around her friend when she could tell that she was truly upset about what happened to Noah. "I'm sorry it's like this now, I wish there was a way for you to get out of this relationship," she said. Gabriella shrugged and kept her composure. She wasn't going to let Noah have the satisfaction of her being upset.

"The relationship is completely done, I don't know why he doesn't see that. He sees me as someone who's completely in love with him when I'm not anymore. He thinks I'll bend to his needs when he asks me to. I know he has control over my job, but I just want to scream sometimes. We haven't even slept together in the longest time, since I avoid him, but he's such a workaholic that he doesn't even care," she said.

"On the bright side, you don't have to sleep with him often," she tried to cheer her friend up who shook her head and she heard her sigh.

Gabriella laughed at her friend's comment. "I guess so," she sighed as she looked at her hand. The diamond on the ring was shining as she moved her hand around. "It's a beautiful ring, but it's not for me."

"Let me see it again," Taylor took her hand and looked at the ring. It was a breathtaking ring that looked amazing on her hand. "It's beautiful."

"It was his mother's ring," she said calmly. "She insisted that he'd give it to me and so when he proposed, I was blown away by the ring," she looked at Taylor before looking at the ring. "His parents love me, and I love them too…it's just I'm not in love with him."

"I'm just glad I'm here with all of you," she said as the car arrived at the house a little bit later. She paid the taxi fare and headed up towards the house. The house was dark and quiet, which Gabriella was a little glad for. "I'm going to head up to bed, I'll see you in the morning," she kissed her friend on the cheek and headed up to her room. After she changed out of her clothes, she got into her pajamas and slid into bed. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep since she was completely exhausted.

The sleep was broken by the sound of footsteps all over the house a few hours later. Gabriella rolled over to look at the time and groaned when it was two in the morning. She heard a girl giggle before shutting a door. Gabriella attempted to fall back asleep, but couldn't when someone opened her bedroom door. She sat up and saw a half naked blonde girl standing at her door. All she had on was a large t-shirt and she was surprised to see Gabriella.

"Oh! Sorry, I thought this was the bathroom," she said, her face flushed when she saw Gabriella. She walked back out and closed the door. Gabriella rolled her eyes and turned around, trying to fall asleep once again.

"Sorry about that Gabi," Troy opened the door as he spoke. "I should have directed her to the bathroom."

Gabriella made a mental note to lock the door from now on. She turned around to look at Troy and when she noticed he didn't have a shirt on, her stomach jumped. He had a nice body to go with his nice face. She did her best to turn her eyes away as she responded to him. "Yeah you should have. I don't want your little groupies coming in my room in the middle of the night," she pulled the covers over her head.

"They're not groupies, I didn't mean to sleep with her but one thing led to another and here we are," the smirk appeared across his face. Everyone knew that was a lie, even Troy himself known it was a lie.

Gabriella rolled her eyes, "whatever," she said as she rolled over, attempting to go back to sleep. She also hoped that Troy got the hint to leave her alone and get out of her room.

"What's your problem?" he asked, his voice a little defensive. She hadn't heard Troy talk like that before, so it caught her off guard. She rolled back around so she was facing him again. She sat up slightly so she was leaning against the back frame of the bed.

"Nothing, I'm trying to get some sleep and here you are, talking to me," she said.

Troy crossed his arm as he leaned against the doorframe. He looked at her before looking at bed. The clothes she had been wearing earlier to dinner were spread all over the bed. "Ever since we got here, you've been acting cold towards me. As far as I know, you and I never met before, so you have no reason to hate me before you get to know me," he said.

"I never said I hated you." She rolled back around before throwing the sheets over her head.

Troy smirked at her as he moved away from the doorframe. "Well you sure as hell look like it," he said.

"Troy I'm tired. Get out of my room so I can get some decent sleep. And it would help if you and your girl keep it down next door," she said. She heard the door close and she lifted the covers to see if he was still standing there, but he wasn't thankfully. She sighed and closed her eyes, trying to fall asleep for the last time of the night.

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><p><strong>Review please! They mean so much to me and motivates me to update!<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thank you all who reviewed. It means so much to read your guys' feedback and opinions on the story! Here's chapter 5, it'll begin to get a lot better from here on out, I promise! :)**

**All right goes to whoever it belongs to.**

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><p>Chapter 5:<p>

The sun shined through the glass windows around six in the morning. Gabriella managed to sleep another two hours after sunrise and by the time she got up, the others was already awake. The smell of eggs and bacon spread throughout the house and it smelled delicious. The smell of the breakfast caused her stomach to growl and she knew she needed breakfast in her stomach.

"Good morning," Troy said joyfully as he flipped the pancakes. No one else was in the kitchen besides him. Gabriella tied her hair up in a messy bun and sat at one of the stools by the counter. She did her best to look good, even though she knew she shouldn't care about her appearance.

"Where's everyone else?" Gabriella asked. The house seemed pretty quiet and she was sure everyone else was awake. Passing the others room, no one was in bed and the TV hadn't been on.

Troy placed one of the perfectly made pancakes on a plate and pushed it to Gabriella. "They're all out swimming, they wanted to wake you up, but I told them you didn't get much sleep because of me last night" he said and tossed some bacon and eggs onto her plate.

She raised her eyebrow at the breakfast he made for her, but she didn't question it. She was hungry to begin with. "And you didn't go swimming with your girl?" she asked as she grabbed herself a fork.

"She left last night, and I didn't feel like swimming so I was making some breakfast." He repeated the steps of putting a pancake onto a plate with some bacon and eggs. He sat down next to her and poured them both a cup of coffee. "Look I'm sorry again about Amber walking into the room last night. She thought it was the bathroom, I hope we weren't too loud either," Troy apologized.

She put her hand up to stop him. "It's fine," she said as she ate the delicious breakfast. She had to give it to him- the food was amazing. The last time she ever had homemade breakfast was a year ago when she went home for the holidays. A lot of the time when she was with Noah, they'd go out for breakfast so she'd have to stop by Starbucks to get coffee and a bagel. They simply didn't have time in the morning to make breakfast and enjoy it together. Not like she wanted to anymore now; but before when she was happy with Noah. "Thanks for cooking." The last thing she could do was thank him for cooking her some breakfast.

Troy shrugged as he popped a piece of bacon into his mouth. She studied him as he ate, seeing that he basically inhaled his food, which caused her to giggle a little. "There's something called chewing before swallowing," she teased.

He stopped mid eating and smirked at her- the smirk that caused her heart to jump a little. "I'm hungry okay? I need some food in my system before I go for a run along the beach." Even if Troy had a week off, he still wanted to stay in shape with the finals coming up in a while.

"You like to run?" she asked him.

"Yeah, the beach is the best place to run. Over at my place, I have a beach I like to run on every morning before it gets crowded," he said. "You run too?"

She smiled at him and nodded her head. "When I can. In New York, it's hard to find time to, but whenever I have free time I like to run around Central Park to clear my head," she said.

"Well you can always join me," Troy offered as he stood up and placed his finished plate into the sink. Gabriella was still working on her pancakes by the time he finished. She debated if she should go running with Troy or if she should play it safe and stay home while everyone else went out. Taking a jog wouldn't be bad; it wasn't like they'd be talking or be super close to each other.

Right as Gabriella was about to agree with him, her cellphone rung. She looked at the caller ID and her heart dropped at the name once again. She looked up at Troy who was also wondering who was calling her. She put a finger up to her lips as if she was letting him know to not say anything. He nodded his head as she clicked the talk button. "Hi Noah," she said.

"How was your night?"

"Good, I just had a lot of meetings but I really think they're going to pull through with the deal," she lied as she watched Troy looked at her.

"So does that mean you're coming home early?"

"No, I have a lot left to do before I can head back to New York, but don't worry, you'll be super busy and in no time I'll be home before you know it," she said as she looked at the ring on her finger. "But I have to go, I'll talk to you soon, I love you," she said as she hung up the phone.

Troy shook his head, "lying to your own fiancé, what kind of fiancée are you?" he asked with a smirk. She rolled her eyes at him and finished her breakfast.

"You don't understand," she said as she tossed the rest of her eggs away and she finished her coffee. "Anyways let's go take a jog," she simply said before heading up the stairs.

Troy watched her walk up the stairs and he couldn't help but to stare at her butt. He smirked to himself as he followed her up the stairs to change himself. He changed into a pair of Lakers basketball shorts and decided if he should wear a shirt. Deciding against it, he grabbed himself a water bottle and waited for Gabriella. She on the other hand decided to go with a pair of running shorts and a tank top. She took off her engagement ring and placed it somewhere safe. Deciding her hair was fine; she placed on light make-up and grabbed her water bottle. She met Troy down at the bottom of the stairs and her stomach flopped when she noticed he wasn't wearing a shirt. He definitely was killing her with this shirtless action. She did her best not to stare in case he'd catch her and it would cause it to boost his ego.

"Let's go," she managed to say as she walked out of the house first. Troy had caught Gabriella staring at his chest and he smiled to himself. Even if she tried hiding the fact she was staring, he had caught the quick glimpse. Once they reached the beach, the two of them took off together into a slow jog. Neither of them spoke as they ran with each other, but they kept up with each other's pace. Gabriella wasn't sure where the beach was leading them, so he slightly took the lead to run to a place he been to before.

They'd been running for a good hour and a half and finally decided to stop when they reached a hill full of rocks. Troy climbed up it and helped her up before finding a spot for them to sit. Both of them breathed deeply to catch their breaths, but once they did, they both sat in silence. "So why didn't you just tell your fiancé you were coming to visit your friends?" Troy asked.

"Not that it's any of your business, he wouldn't have let me if I told him the truth," she said.

Troy rolled his eyes, "why are you letting him control your life? As far as I can tell, you seem to be an innocent and independent girl who can make her own decision. If he's your fiancé, he should respect that," he said. Troy seemed like he was getting worked up over the fact that Gabriella only listened to her fiancé.

She looked at him before looking away. "You don't understand what he's capable of. I'm stuck in a relationship I don't want to be in. If I even told him that I don't love him anymore, he'll have my job in a split second," she admitted. She hadn't told anyone that besides Taylor. She was ashamed to let people know that her fiancé was in control of her life. It was embarrassing and people wouldn't be too happy to know that.

"That's not right," he said.

"Tell me about it," she said followed by a sigh. She hated her fiancé for having that power over her, but she couldn't do anything to stop it.

He stayed quiet for a moment before looking at her. "I just think you should stand up for yourself. I'm sure a company out in California would be glad to have you. I know you're the CEO over in New York, but if your fiancé takes that from you, someone in California would love to invest in you," Troy said with a shrug.

She decided to change the subject, as she didn't want to talk about herself anymore. "Anyways, how's basketball going? I hear that you guys are going to the finals? Congratulations," she said.

Troy grinned as she congratulated him. "Thanks, it's important that we win the finals. So I can prove the doubters wrong. There are a lot of people who love the Celtics, so we'll see," he said.

"Well I hope you guys win," she said as she nudged him slightly. He smiled and nudged her back gently. "We should get back in case the others are probably wondering where we are," she said as she got up. She waited for him to get up as well and the two of them jogged back together. She couldn't believe that she actually had a civilized conversation with him without her needing to kick him out or tell him to go away.

They reached the beach house a bit later and the others were already inside cooking up lunch. Gabriella quickly headed up to the showers so she could be fresh for lunch while Troy hung around downstairs with the guys.

"Where'd you guys go?" Zeke asked.

Troy sat down on one of the lounging chairs and rested his head back. "We went jogging for a while," he said with his eyes closed.

Chad smirked at Troy. "You didn't try anything did you? Because I warned you not to," he said.

"Don't worry Chad, I'm sure she's not interested in me and she's engaged. So, no I didn't try anything," he said with his eyes still closed.

Sharpay walked out of the house and sat on her boyfriend's lap before looking at the others. "It's a shame she's in a relationship. You two would look like a damn cute couple," Sharpay said and smiled.

Troy smirked as he kept his eyes closed. They would look like one hell of a couple, but Troy didn't do relationships, and she was already in one. But he didn't mind hooking up with her eventually. "Alright, I have to shower," he said and got up from the spot he was sitting in. By the time he got upstairs, Gabriella finished showering and the two of them passed without saying anything to each other but a smile.

Gabriella changed into a summer dress and a pair of flats. She let her hair dry before she curled it loosely. She looked at her engagement ring before placing it on her finger. She wished she didn't have to wear the ring, but she knew that if she lost it, her fiancé would be so mad. She opened her laptop to check her email just in case Danielle sent her something about work. Seeing that she didn't have any, she closed the laptop and headed downstairs to the rest of the party. Taylor was cooking something while Chad was grilling some burgers and steak. "Hey Tay, do you need any help?"

"Sure, could you wash the fruits and cut them up for me," she asked as she looked at Gabriella. "Where were you?" she asked.

Gabriella grabbed a bunch of fruits and a platter before walking over to the sink and washing each and everyone of them. "I went jogging with Troy this morning. I needed to clear my head and he was going jogging so I joined him." She peeled the stickers off the fruits as she kept her eyes on them.

"He didn't try to hit on you did he?"

She laughed, "no, not this time thankfully," she said. As she made her way to the fridge, she grabbed herself an alcohol beverage to drink before opening it and taking a drink out of it. She needed it right now and she didn't care if the others judged her for it.

"Hey, get me one too," Taylor said as Gabriella walked back to the fridge to grab her a beverage.

"Drinking after you just exercised?" Troy asked as he walked down the stairs. He was dressed into a pair of khaki shorts and a white V-neck t-shirt. He had his aviators on and he was looking super cute.

Gabriella kept her eyes on the fruit so she didn't stare at him. "I don't care, I need it," she said as she took another drink out of her bottle.

"Well pace yourself, we don't want a drunk Gabriella now, do we?" he asked with a smirk. He headed out to where the guys were.

Gabriella rolled her eyes and looked at Taylor. "Can you believe that guy?" she asked.

"Actually, yes I can," Taylor laughed and side hugged her best friend. "Come on, let's finish this so we can start eating," she said as the two girls finished up in the kitchen.

About an hour later, all the food was prepared and everyone was sitting outside on the porch. The guys managed to set up the volleyball net in the sand while others were sitting around the fire pit that was made. The table was set with all of the food and chairs were out for those who were hungry. Chad was still grilling some food on the grill to keep it warm until someone wanted something. Troy was sitting around the fireplace with Sharpay since he couldn't play volleyball in case he'd hurt himself from it and then his team would not be happy with him.

"The food is ready!" Taylor yelled loud enough for everyone to hear. Those who were playing volleyball stopped and those who were sitting around the fire pit walked over to the table. Gabriella sat next to Taylor and Sharpay while the boys sat across from them.

Gabriella picked up her beverage and took a large swig out of it before placing it on the table.

"Gosh Gabs, how many have you had?" Sharpay asked as she opened her first one.

"She's had like five already," Taylor said as she grabbed the salad to put on her plate.

Gabriella giggled and shook her head, "No! What? I've had like…3 or so," she said and drank her drink again.

"Well you better slow your roll or you'll be drunk before it even gets dark," Troy said as he grabbed a burger.

She stuck out her tongue at Troy before drinking her drink. She definitely needed to slow down or she'll be drunk quick. Who knows what happened when she was drunk. She didn't know if she'd be a happy drunk or an emotional drunk. Either way, she didn't want to find out.

"So are we going out tonight or what?" Troy asked. The others looked at him before looking at each other to determine if they were going to go out tonight.

Gabriella smirked and finished her bottle. "Why? So you can find another groupie to bring home?" she asked as she cocked her head to the side slightly.

Troy smirked and rolled his eyes, "it's none of your business," he retorted and grinned.

"Let's stay in and hang out back here, it's a nice night and we have the fire pit set up already," Chad suggested as he flipped a steak on the grill. The others nodded their head in agreement. Gabriella rolled her eyes and grabbed herself another bottle to drink.

"Should you really be having another one?" Troy asked as he eyed her new drink. He watched her struggle with taking the cap off, but managed to do it after a while.

She shrugged and drank it, "I don't know, but I'm going to have another one anyways," she said with a smile. Troy shook his head as the others watched them interact before returning to their food. The meal went by rather quickly as everyone was enjoying the conversations that they were having. They began talking about their jobs and how things were going at the office. Soon, those who were done all headed to the fire pit that was burning slowly. The red flames brought brightness around making it easy for everyone to see each other.

"I would….I would…." Gabriella stumbled as she stood up, attempting to speak. "I would like to pro-prose a to..toast," she said with a smile on her face. She held up what was her ninth bottle. "To a wonderful weekend with my fantastic friends…without my douche bag of a fiancé here is the best thing I could have a-asked for," she fell back as Chad caught her. The others laughed and shook their heads at Gabriella.

"Maybe you should stop," Taylor said and pulled the bottle away from Gabriella who put no attempt to take the bottle back. "I've never seen her drink this much before," she said.

Troy shook his head, "you're going to have to control her or else she'll fall into the fire," he said as he eyed Gabriella carefully.

"I'm fine," Gabriella said as she stood back up. "I'm going swimming." Right on the spot, she pulled her top off and ran towards the water before anyone could stop her. She had pulled off her pants and jumped into the water with her bra and underwear on. Everyone else watched her in surprise as they had never seen this side of Gabriella before.

"Jesus…" Troy stood up and ran after Gabriella. "Someone has to get her out before she drowns or something," he said as he pulled his shirt off and jumped into the ocean after her. He didn't know why no one was trying to help Gabriella. It was dangerous in the water and if she went out too far, she'd be too drunk to help herself. "Gabriella get out of the water before you drown," he said as he swam towards her.

"Have a little fun Troy," she said as she swam on her back. Now Chad had jumped into the water and followed over to them.

"C'mon Gabs, it's dangerous," he said as he grabbed her. Troy grabbed her legs so she couldn't swim away from them. All Gabriella could do was pout as the two strong men pulled her out of the water.

Taylor was waiting for them on shore with a towel. When they dropped her to her feet, Taylor wrapped a towel around her and walked with her. "Let's get you changed and put to bed. You're going to have the biggest hangover tomorrow, let's just be glad you didn't decide to go skinny dipping," she said as Gabriella rested herself against Taylor who had to use her force to get her back to the room.

"Tay…I'm tired," Gabriella's eyes were half closed as she walked with Taylor back inside the house. Once they reached her room, Taylor helped Gabriella get into some dry clothes. As she put her to bed, Gabriella seemed asleep by the time she hit the pillows. Taylor kissed her best friend on the forehead before walking out and closing the door behind her.

"Is she asleep?" Chad asked once Taylor came back outside and sat around the fire pit. Taylor nodded her head and sat back down with the others. "She fell asleep when she hit the pillows. I've never seen her drink like that, I guess she just wanted to forget about Noah," she said. She glanced over at Troy who was drying his hair with a towel.

Troy dropped his towel on the seat and stood up. "I think I'm going to head up to bed too, I'm exhausted," he said. He waved at the others before walking up the stairs. He was exhausted from the running this morning and basically staying out in the sun all day. All he wanted to do was to drop onto the bed and fall asleep. Before he went to his room, he brushed his teeth and washed his hair so the smell of the ocean was out. By the time he got out, he decided to check on Gabriella to make sure she was asleep. He gently opened the door and noticed that she wasn't in bed. That was weird- Taylor had said that she was asleep when she hit the pillow. Now she wasn't even in her own bed. Troy wondered if she went to the bathroom, which made most sense. It was getting late and he was tired. He didn't need to be worrying about Gabriella anymore. She wasn't his problem and he wasn't going to babysit her all night. He made his way to his bedroom, when he noticed the light was on. That was strange, he didn't remember going into his room. Pushing the door open, he noticed a figure on his bed. Not only was their a figure on his bed, the figure was wearing just a bra and her underwear. "Gabriella what are you doing in my bed?"

"Like I said Troy, learn to have a little fun," she sat up slightly on the bed, looking all seductive and drunk at the same time. She lifted her finger towards him and curled it a few times as if she was saying to come to her.

Troy looked back behind him and then looked back at her before chuckling. "You need to get some sleep Gabi." Believe him, it was hard to resist, but he was a better guy than that. She looked extremely sexy on his bed- besides the fact that she was drunk. It took a lot in him to resist her, but he was going to do his best.

"Come on, I know you wanted me before just like I want you. Look," she lifted her lift hand. "I don't have my ring on, I'm a single lady," she cocked her head to the side seductively.

Troy walked over to the end of the bed and looked at her before shaking his head. "Where's your ring?" he asked, ignore the fact that he did want her just as much as she wanted him.

She shrugged her shoulder as she crawled over to him. "I don't care," she said and pulled on his shirt.

He reached for her hand and stopped her from pulling on his shirt. "I'm not going to sleep with your when you're drunk," he said. "Get some sleep, you don't want to do this because you'll regret it in the morning," he said and began walking back towards the door. "Goodnight Gabriella," he turned off the light as he closed the door behind him. Once he closed the door, he leaned against it and sighed. Boy was she going to be hard to resist.

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><p><strong>REVIEW PLEASE!<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Thank you so much to those who review and read my story. It means a lot to me that you guys actually spare time to read my story. Here's the next chapter as you see Gabriella beginning to fall for Mr. Troy Bolton and things get complicated. **

**All right goes to whoever it belongs to.**

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><p>Chapter 6:<p>

Whenever there was drinking involved, there was always consequences with it. Gabriella's consequence was a huge hangover Wednesday morning. Waking up early, she groaned and rolled over on her stomach. The sun was shining through the window blinding Gabriella as she opened her eyes. She had to bury her face into the pillow to keep the sun from blinding her as the sun was shining brightly. That was when the smell of the pillow caused her to lift her head from the pillow. It didn't smell like her pillow. Not at all, in fact it smelled like a guy, particularly a smell of a type of man shampoo. Gabriella rolled back around so she was on her back and facing the ceiling. That was not her ceiling either- hers had flowers on top, but this ceiling was plain and simple. That was when it clicked to Gabriella that she wasn't in her room. She sat up quickly and looked around; it definitely wasn't her room, it belonged to someone else.

Suddenly she felt aware that she was half clothed. She looked under the blanket and saw that she was in her bra and underwear. Her eyes widen at the sight of her half naked. "Oh my god…oh my god," she said as she panicked. What happened last night? Did she sleep with someone? Wasn't this Troy's room? Gabriella panicked more as she asked herself those questions. "He took advantage of me!" she said out loud to herself. That was the only explanation of why she was in her lingerie. She knew she wouldn't throw herself towards him like that, she had more self control than that. Right? That was when there was a knock on the door. She stared at it as a shirtless Troy walked into the room with coffee in his hand.

"Good morning sunshine," he said in a cheerful mood.

Gabriella stared at Troy. Did they sleep together? She covered herself so Troy wasn't able to see her in her undergarments. She didn't say anything to him as she watched him. He was in a happy mood so that must mean that he had got some from her last night. He never looked like this happy, not when it was the morning time.

He sat down at the edge of the bed and offered her the cup of coffee. She took it slowly and drank it as she stared at him. He was smiling, a stupid smile that made her heart jump a little. The smile was a little cockier than she had anticipated, like he was keeping a secret or something else. It was now or never, she had to ask him the question she thought she'd never ask another male.

"Did we…did we sleep together?" she managed to ask.

Troy looked at her and blinked a few times. "You don't remember what happened last night?" he asked.

"Please, please tell me we didn't sleep together," she said as she began to freak out inside. The last thing she needed was to have drunken sex with a man she barely even knew.

Troy didn't answer her for a moment, his face as serious as ever. Gabriella then realized that they must have slept together if his face was that serious. Her stomach began to sink and it felt like time just stopped. Then that's when he began laughing. "No we didn't sleep together. Although you wanted to," he said, grinning.

She felt her face getting red, "you're kidding," she said. She was embarrassed and she wanted to hit him at the same time for making her believe that they did for a second. She didn't even want to know what she said to him. She must have done something stupid for him to be sitting there and smiling at her.

"No I'm not kidding," he said. "You told me you were single for the night and you don't have your ring on," he said as he pointed to her bare hand.

She looked at her hand and her eyes widen. "Where's my ring?" she asked as she stood up quickly, completely forgetting that she was half naked. She looked around on the bed as she panicked. "Oh my god, Noah is going to kill me if I don't find it!" Gabriella practically flipped over the entire mattress to see if the ring was underneath the bed, but it was nowhere to be in sight.

"Hey Tr-" the door opened as Chad walked in. When he saw Troy shirtless and Gabriella in her underwear and bra, his jaw dropped. The two of them turned towards the door and their eyes widen when Chad's eye widen. "My bad," he walked back out and closed the door.

"Shit, Chad! It's not what you think," he said as he ran after Chad. Gabriella stood in Troy's room alone, covering her body with his blanket. She sat down on the bed as she began panicking. Where could her ring be and how much did she embarrass herself last night? There was another knock on the door as this time; Taylor was the one who walked in. The two of them had eye contact for a bit until Taylor sat next to Gabriella.

"Please tell me you didn't sleep with Troy,…" she said.

"I didn't! At least…that's what he told me. How drunk was I?" Gabriella asked.

"Pretty drunk. You went swimming in your bra and underwear. You also called your fiancé a douche bag in front of everyone," she said. Gabriella groaned as she stood up.

"And I lost my ring…could this get any worst?" she asked. "I need to shower and change into something that isn't what I slept in." It felt like she was taking a walk of shame back to her room. Thankfully it was next door and not across the hallway. She had the biggest headache to cause her to have a hangover from all the alcohol she had consumed last night. She needed some medicine and some sleep, but first she wanted to find her ring that she lost. A stupid ring that was given to her that she didn't even care about. "If you find it, please let me know," Gabriella said softly as she made her way back to her bedroom. Once she got back into her room, she sat down on the bed and rested her face into her hand. She couldn't believe she allowed herself to get that drunk last night. Normally she wasn't one to get drunk, especially with a lot of other people she hadn't seen in a while, but she just needed something to make her forget about Noah. Apparently, attempting to sleep with Troy was the way to go.

There was no way she'd be able to hide in her room for the whole day. Everyone else would begin to wonder where she was or if she was sick. She had to pretend like nothing happened, which she planned on doing.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.

Her iPhone lit up on the desk next to her bed. Knowing who it was, she cleared her throat before picking up her phone, "hi Noah," she forced herself to sound happy.

"Hey baby, how are things going over there? Still good or are you ready to come home to me?"

"I'm fine, I just have a meeting this morning that I need to take care of, so I can talk right now," she suddenly felt guilty. She knew she didn't cheat on him, but losing the ring and trying to seduce Troy just made her feel guilty.

"Is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine," she forced herself to say. "Look Noah, I have to go, but I'll call you once my meeting is over," she said before hanging up the phone. She tossed her iPhone aside before closing her eyes and laying back on the bed. A few hours were all she needed. She needed to get some sleep before she showered and headed down to the rest of the group. "How could I be so stupid?" she asked herself before throwing the sheets over her head.

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><p>"Dude, I told you to stay away from her. She has a fiancé and you took advantage of her last night when she was drunk!" The two guys were outside in front of the beach house, as Troy had to chase Chad all the way out here.<p>

"I didn't sleep with her bro!" As many times as Troy tried to convince Chad that they didn't sleep together, it would not process through Chad's head.

Chad stopped and turned to look at Troy. "I saw the two of you, basically naked! The look on your faces said enough," Chad said. "She's like my little sister, I don't want you to hurt her and here you are; not listening to anything I say!" Chad turned back around so he wouldn't feel the need to punch Troy.

Troy grabbed his shoulder to stop him. "How many times do I have to fucking tell you? I didn't sleep with her nor would I have done it when she was drunk! She came into my room last night and fell asleep! You're my best friend and you have to believe me, I would never sleep with her, not when she's in a relationship alright? And not when she's your girlfriend's best friend," Troy explained.

Chad and Troy both remained quiet for a few minutes, both of them staring into each other eyes as if one were to look away, they'd be lying. Troy didn't take his eyes away from Chad; neither did Chad look away from Troy. Finally Chad sighed and looked away. "I believe you, I'm sorry I flipped out. I'm just protective of her and Taylor would be upset if she knew you slept with her," Chad said.

He shook his head, "I gave you my word and I intend on keeping it," he said.

Chad smiled and patted his friend's shoulder. "Good or I'd really have to kick your ass," he said as the two guys headed back inside.

Troy didn't plan on telling Chad that he was close to giving in last night. If he told Chad that, most likely he'd come after Troy and beat him to death.

Troy entered the kitchen with a warm smile on his face and immediately Taylor who didn't look so happy sitting at the counter greeted him. "So, did you find Gabriella's ring?" she asked him.

"I don't know where it is, it's not my problem," Troy said. He opened the fridge to grab bottled water before sitting at the table with Taylor and Chad. Sharpay came down a few minutes later and looked at the others.

"What was going on this morning? Me and Zeke heard a lot of yelling and commotion," she said.

Troy looked at the others who looked at him. "Nothing, just some misunderstanding, that was all," he said.

Sharpay nodded her head, half asleep. She didn't really listen to what he said as she made her way back up the stairs.

"I'm going to make breakfast," Troy said. It was early enough to make breakfast and no one had eaten this morning yet. "You guys hungry?" he asked as he walked over to the fridge again to see what he had to cook, "I can make some bacon and toast," he said.

About an hour later, he finished making breakfast in time for the others besides Gabriella to come down. They had set up the table out on the deck outside so they could enjoy the meal in the warm day. Zeke and Ryan decided to take a morning swim while Sharpay laid out in the sun to get a tan. Taylor was helping Troy set up the table while Chad grabbed the plates. Soon everyone made their ways to the breakfast table and sat down while they waited for it to be served.

"Gabriella isn't up yet?" Sharpay asked.

Taylor shook her head, "she probably has a hangover," she lightly teased.

"I don't have a hangover," Gabriella retorted once she reached the bottom of the stairs. Her hair was lightly damped from the shower she had taken, and she was wearing a pair of high wasted shorts and a yellow flowery tank top tucked into her pants. She made her way over to the table and sat between Sharpay and Taylor.

"There's Ms. Drunkie," Zeke teased as Gabriella rolled her eyes.

"Very funny," she said. "I'm feeling fine now by the way," she said.

Troy raised his eyebrow at Gabriella, noticing that she wasn't making any eye contact with him at all. While she was talking with the others, she didn't say or look at him at all. "Good, we don't want you throwing up all over the place now, do we?" he asked her, waiting for her remark.

Gabriella quickly glanced at Troy who was sitting on the opposite end of the table. "I'm hungry, let's eat!" She had completely ignored Troy's words, as she had nothing to say to him. Maybe she was too embarrassed or maybe she didn't want to talk to him at the moment. Either way, she was going to enjoy breakfast without having to talk to Troy.

Breakfast had gone by quickly and everyone all had plans to enjoy the sun today. No one really wanted to go anywhere during the day as they all waited until later to enjoy the city. Gabriella had told everyone that she'd be cleaning up the table since she didn't help this morning while everyone would have a head start on the beach. Picking up a few plates, she made her way into the kitchen and tossed the plates into the sink. She was glad everyone was out on the beach so she could clean peacefully. Before she started to wash the dishes, she looked through each cabinet to find the medicine to help her headache. She couldn't find it as she suddenly felt thirsty. Her headache was getting to her more and more as time went by. Placing both hands on the counter, she took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes. She couldn't wait to finish cleaning so she could enjoy some sleep on the beach.

There was a sudden presence she felt behind her as she opened her eyes to see a hand holding a bottle of medicine. She turned her head slightly to see Troy standing right behind her. He hadn't said a single thing as he waited for her to grab it. Once she did and grabbed two pills, she downed it with some water and let out a small sigh. "Thanks," she simply said as she walked over to the sink.

"I can wash, you know. If you have a headache, you can go out and enjoy the beach with everyone else," Troy offered.

That offer sounded so tempting, but she shook her head. "I'm fine, I can clean Troy," she said.

Troy shrugged his shoulders. "Suit yourself," he said before turning and picking up a few dishes. "You forgot some," he said as he walked over so he was behind her. He leaned over, his chest brushing her shoulder gently as he placed the plate into the sink. He looked at her quickly before walking away from her. Gabriella shivered slightly at their slight touch as she turned her head slightly to look at him.

"Troy?"

"Hmm?" he asked as he turned around.

"Could you help me rinse?" Help wouldn't hurt. It would go by a lot faster so she could go outside with the others.

A smile appeared across his face as he nodded. "Sure," he said as he walked over and joined her at the sink. Washing the dishes went rather smoothly for Troy and Gabriella. Neither of them really said anything to each other as they washed the dishes in silence. Gabriella had her mind on a lot of things and Troy being this close to her made her feel nervous all of a sudden. Troy on the other hand seemed more relax than she did. She wondered if he could tell that she was nervous being around him. If he did, he did a damn good job of hiding it.

"Thanks," Gabriella said to him as she dried her hand on the towel. That was the first word she had said to him after she asked him to help her with the dishes.

"Don't mention it," he smiled that smile that made her heart melt as he made his way outside of the house. Gabriella watched him, biting her lower lip slightly. She didn't know why he was making her nervous after three days being around him. It was something about him that made her think about him as he ran from the house onto the beach. Snapping out of her distraction, she remembered that she had to find her ring. She mentally groaned as she headed out with the others, attempting to enjoy what four days she had left at the beach house.

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><p>Thursday morning, everyone but Gabriella, Chad, Taylor, and Troy decided to go out to the city to enjoy the day there. Gabriella wanted to, but she hadn't been feeling all too well when she woke up. She was lying in bed as she felt her forehead and it was burning. She hated when she was sick, it meant that she had to lie in bed all day. On the bright side, she was able to get some work done on her laptop. As she opened her laptop and checked her email, she quickly grabbed her iPhone after reading an e-mail from her assistant.<p>

"Hello?"

"Danielle, It's Gabriella. What is this that I'm reading about Astros Beauty Wear wanting compete with our company?" she asked as she sat up from her bed. "You know how much I hate Caroline and her company! Who agreed to sign a contract with her?"

"No one agreed to sign a contract with her yet, but your fiancé insisted that she helped out your company, so we sent over a few paperwork to get done."

"Well cancel it! I don't want ABW to have a line in our industry. I don't want to be affiliated with that bitch in anyway. I will call Noah after I get off the phone with you. But please Danielle, get it fixed and handled before I come back to New York." Gabriella hung up the phone and fixed her breathing pattern. She was angry right now, angry at Caroline, and furious at her fiancé. It didn't help that she wasn't feeling good at all either. She dialed Noah's number before waiting for him to answer.

"Hi honey, can I call you back later? I'm kind of bus-"

"No actually," she snapped as she cut him off. "What is this I hear about ABW joining my Sparkles Fashion Industry?"

There was silence on the other end for a moment before he finally spoke. "Look, Caroline's company is failing. She needs your help so I suggested that she conjoins her company with yours," he said calmly. "I don't need you raising your voice at me, and I think this will be a good thing for you. That's why I did it. You need to understand business sweetheart, and this will be a good investment," he said.

Gabriella bit her tongue from saying anything mean to him. She knew if she did, he'd be upset with her and she didn't want to deal with that right now. She felt like crying because of her fiancé, the fact that her sworn enemy was coming onto her line, and that she was sick. "I have to go," she said as she hung up. Once she threw her phone aside, she began to cry. She sobbed into her hand softly as she laid back onto the bed. There was a soft knock on the door. "Go away," she said.

The door opened and Troy peeked his head in. He had noticed that Gabriella was crying and he walked over to her. "Everything okay?" he asked.

"No it's not okay. Noah is ruining my company at this moment," she said as she sobbed. "H…He…asked…m….my…enemy to conjoin…c…companies," she managed to say through her sobs. She felt Troy's arm go around her shoulder as he pulled her to her.

"Hey it's going to be okay," his voice was surprisingly soothing to her ears as she began to settle down a little.

"N…No it's…n…not. She's…s…tu..stupid," Gabriella sobbed quieter this time.

Troy gave her a half smile, "I'm sure she is stupid, but you'll be fine. As far as I know, your company is the highest one right now, you're the boss of your company. You can easily fire her or transfer her," he said.

"On top of t…that," she began, "I feel like sh…shit." She finally stopped the sobbing, but her face was still red and her eyes were puffy.

Troy grabbed her the medicine he brought up. "I brought this up to you because I heard you were sick," he said as he offered her the medicine. She looked at him before looking at the medicine.

"Thanks," she said as she moved away from him. She grabbed the medicine and popped a medicine in her mouth before drinking it with water. "I got to get back to work," she muttered as she turned her body away from Troy. She was a little embarrassed that he saw her crying.

Troy looked at her before looking at the time. "I'm assuming you're not going out tonight?" he asked.

She shrugged her shoulder. "We'll see," she simply said without looking at him.

Troy waited for her to look at him, but since he didn't. He turned and walked out of the room.

When she heard the door shut, she turned back to look and let out a small sigh. She didn't know why he was being so nice to her all of a sudden. She wasn't nice to him the first time she met him, but he was taking care of her right now. That was something Noah had never done for her in a while, and she liked the fact that Troy was.

Later that night, the moon reflecting off the ocean made the night seem so beautiful. It was a quiet evening on a Thursday night while the group left to go out. Gabriella had decided to stay in as she felt exhausted and still a little sick from earlier. The medicine that Troy had given her made her feel ten times much better after she took a small nap. Although she felt better, she still wanted to stay home and she needed to get some work on before she could enjoy the rest of the three days she still had. Gabriella sat on the patio with a glass of wine on the table next to her. She was enjoying this Thursday night under the moon in California. It was much better than staying in New York with her fiancé in the other room. The slight wind blowing against Gabriella was more peaceful than the noise of taxi horns blaring through New York.

"So you aren't going out tonight then?"

Gabriella turned her head slightly as she saw Troy standing there. She shook her head, responding to his question. "What about you? I'm sure you can find a girl to come home with," she said.

Troy chuckled and sat down on the chair next to her. "Nah, I felt like staying in and watching some basketball films as I prepare for the finals," he said and looked at her glass of wine. "Hope that you're slowing down on the drinking," he lightly teased.

Gabriella rolled her eyes and stared out at the ocean. "It's peaceful out in California, I wish I could stay like this forever," she said softly.

"You can, just move out here," he said as he stared out at the ocean as well.

She laughed as if it was the funniest thing she's heard. "Yeah, like my fiancé would want to come out here, he has everything going for him in the Big Apple," she said.

"If you don't love him, why don't you just leave him? I know you told me he has control over your life, but it doesn't mean you losing your job is the end of the world. It's better to lose a job than to lose your life," he said. "You need to control your own life Gabi," he sat up and turned him so he was sitting facing her. "It's not the end of the world if you leave him," Troy said.

Gabriella looked at him as she looked away from the ocean. Troy had a point, but she knew it wasn't that easy to leave Noah. He had a hold over her life that no one knew about and she didn't want her life ruined. Troy just seemed so sincere about her life that it was making her stomach flip. Without thinking, she sat up and turned so she was facing him. Before she knew it, she was leaning forward to kiss him on the lips. It was soft, but it was a kiss. Troy didn't react at first, but then she felt his hand on her waist as he deepened the kiss. She didn't think he'd kiss her back, but he was the one who deepened the kiss. The kiss deepened that she felt her mouth slightly opening, giving him the opportunity to slip his tongue into her mouth. His tongue explored her mouth as she allowed him, but after several minutes, she pulled away. She had to collect her thoughts before anything else happened. This was wrong, so wrong. She was engaged, but she couldn't help but to want him more. "Troy I-" he cut her off.

"Shh," he said as he put a finger up to her mouth. "It's okay, I know," he smiled as he got up and headed back into the house.

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><p><strong>REVIEW PLEASE! xo<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thank you so much for those who reviewed the story.**

**WARNING: This chapter is where it starts the 'Rated M' part.**

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><p>Chapter 7:<p>

"What have I done?" Gabriella whispered to herself as she sat out on the deck with her wine glass. She didn't mean to kiss him; in fact she didn't plan on kissing him ever. It just suddenly happened and she didn't know what came over her. Maybe it was the sickness she was feeling or maybe she was lonely. Either way, she knew she shouldn't have kissed him.

What was even more wrong was that she liked it; she liked it a lot. She remembered what it was like kissing Noah for the first time. It was amazing and it was like she had never been kissed. But kissing Troy was another story. She felt sparks and it made her heart melt, it was like they had been kissing since forever and it was completely normal. It didn't help that she was home alone with him. She would stay out here all night until the others came back, but they had just left and wouldn't be back for a few hours. It was beginning to get a little chilly outside and she looked back into the house. The lights were on, but she couldn't see Troy inside. _Maybe he went upstairs._ She got up from her seat and grabbed her glass in before heading inside. Downstairs was clear, as she didn't see him in the living room or the kitchen. It was safe is she stayed down here until the others came home.

She turned on the TV and watched some game show that was playing late at night. She began to relax as she didn't hear movement upstairs, which meant Troy, had gone off to sleep or was watching some basketball films. As she began to fall asleep on the couch, she heard noises coming from the back door. She quickly got up and looked back, but didn't see anyone. _It must have been the wind. _She laid her head back on the couch when she heard the noise again, but it sounded like footsteps running on the balcony. Now she was getting a little scared. Quickly getting up, she sprinted to the stairs and ran all the way up. She ran to Troy's door and opened it without knocking. He was lying on the bed while watching something on TV as she closed the door behind her.

"Troy I think someone is outside of the house," she said as she attempted to catch her breath.

"What?"

"I heard footsteps running outside when I was down there," she said.

Troy sighed and rested his hands behind his head. "It's probably just the wind," he said as he focused on the TV. For someone who had just been kissed, he was acting rather calm and normal.

"Can you check so I can go downstairs and enjoy the rest of the night?" she asked.

Troy groaned and got up. "You're twenty-five and you're scared, seriously?" he asked as he looked at her before walking out of the room.

"Twenty-four actually," she corrected him as she sat in his room waiting for him. She bit her lip as she looked around the room. The last time she was in here, she was in her lingerie.

Moments later, he came back up and rolled his eyes. "Like I said, it was nothing," he said as he got back into bed.

Gabriella sat there, playing with her hands for a moment before turning to him. "Can I just stay in here with you then until the others come back. I'm too scared to go back downstairs," she said. "I'll be quiet while you watch your film. I'll just bring my laptop in here and do my work quietly."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever," he said as he went back to watching.

Gabriella went to get her laptop in her room quickly before heading back into Troy's room. She sat at the edge of the bed while she worked on some work that she needed to get done. Neither of them talked for a while, as they were both focused on their own thing. He was still making her nervous as he sat there in silence. She could not figure out why he was being cool about her kissing him. She was freaking out inside as she sat in the same room with him. Deciding to break the silence, she turned to look at him. "Troy, look I'm sorry for kissing you. I didn't mean to. I don't know why I did it, but I'm embarrassed and I apologize," she had to swallow her pride to apologize to him.

Troy kept his face to the TV, but his eyes moved to look at her. "It's fine," he said. "You were lonely and needed someone to kiss. So you were bored and kissed me, I get it." If Gabriella had known better, he sounded a little upset that she kissed him because she was bored.

"I wasn't lonely, I was just…I don't know, but I didn't kiss you because I was bored," she said.

"Oh? Then why did you kiss me? Because you go around kissing a lot of guys even though you have a fiancé?" he asked.

Gabriella flinched at his words. It was like he was calling her a slut without needing to use the actual word. "I _don't _go around kissing guys," she simply said as she felt her own voice rising.

"Then why'd you kiss me then?" he asked.

Gabriella bit her tongue before releasing it. "Forget it," she mumbled before turning back to her work.

Troy got up from the bed and walked over to her so he was standing in front of her. "No tell me, why'd you kiss me?" he asked her.

She looked up at him when he stood in front of her. Sitting down, he was a giant compared to her. She stood up herself, not letting him feel the power over her. "I just did! Let it go!"

"I tried, but you brought it back up, so now we're talking about it," he said as he stayed in his position. "Unless, you kissed me because you're attracted to me… I mean, I've noticed how nervous you get when I'm around and you can't help but to feel butterflies in your stomach when I'm near you," he smirked, his voice sounding cockier than ever. Gabriella wanted to slap the smirk off his face, but contained herself. "You're just scared to admit it because you have a fiancé," he continue to taunt her.

"Go to hell Troy," she said to his face, knowing that everything he said was true. She pushed him away from her, which he barely moved but she moved past him, heading to the door.

Troy turned and grabbed her wrist before twisting her body to him. He pulled her to him as she tried pulling away from his grasp. Knowing that she wasn't successful, she stopped and looked up at him. He smirked at her before crashing his lips onto her lips with force. His kiss was powerful and full of desire. He had a hold of both of her wrist as he kissed her deeply and passionately. He could feel Gabriella trying to not kiss him back, but finally she gave in and kissed him back. He pulled them towards the bed and gently laid down with her onto his bed. His tongue explored her mouth as they continued to kiss with passion. His hand let go of her wrist as they moved to her waist. Her hand had fallen into his hair as she grabbed a handful of it as they continued. He pulled away from the kiss before moving down to her neck, leaving small kisses from her lips to her neck. He heard her moan slightly after each kiss and he moved back up to kiss her on the lips.

She ran her hand up his back, underneath his shirt as their lips were still locked to one another. She opened her mouth over his, tasting his lips and opening his mouth up with her tongue. She didn't have to force him to do it as he willingly opened his mouth for her tongue to enter his mouth. Moving her hands from his back to his face, she deepened the kiss, letting him know she was more than willing and not calling a halt anytime soon. She felt his erection against her leg as she pulled away to look at a grinning Troy. She pulled his face to hers again as she continued to kiss him. She slid her hand on the ends of his shirt to pull it over his head and when he obliged to it, she tossed the shirt on the ground beside them. He helped her take off his own pants and now he was in his boxers.

She was fully clothed as he began to make his way back to her neck and leaving small kisses from her collarbone to her neck. His hand moved to the button on her shorts as he undid it and helped it pull it down. Once it was off, he pulled her shirt quickly over her head and tossed it over his shirt on the ground. Her breasts were pushed against his chest as he held her hand in position on the bed while he stuck his tongue back into her mouth. Their lips were meshed, and their tongues were tangling. He wanted her, he wanted her now.

Just as he was about to unhook her bra, the sound of the front door opened. Both of them froze as Gabriella's head lifted slightly from the bed and Troy's head turned towards the door. Quickly, Troy jumped off of her and grabbed her clothes and tossed it to her. He grabbed his own clothes and threw them on quickly. She got dressed faster than he did and in about a minute, they were fully clothed. She quickly grabbed her laptop and headed back into her room without looking back at Troy.

* * *

><p>They almost slept together. She was about a minute away from having sex with Troy. She sat at the end of her bed, hugging her laptop to her chest as she could feel Troy's lips on hers. She touched her lip slightly as she felt herself smile at the thought of him kissing her. She liked that; she liked the fact that she felt happy when he kissed her.<p>

There were a few voices downstairs as she heard one of the voices belonging to Chad. She didn't know who else was with him, but she knew that they were home now and she and Troy weren't home alone together.

Suddenly she felt guilty again. She had just cheated on her fiancé and she didn't feel too good about herself. She couldn't help but to want Troy even more now, but she knew that it was wrong that she was doing that to her fiancé. Gabriella looked at herself in the mirror to make sure she looked fine before heading downstairs to the others.

"You guys are home early," Gabriella said.

Chad looked up the stairs at Gabriella, "Yeah, Sharpay got into a fight with some girl at the club who was trying to hit on Zeke. They kicked us out and no one wanted to party anymore," he said.

"It's not my fault! That stupid girl knew better than to hit on my man," Sharpay exclaimed.

Gabriella laughed as she walked over to Sharpay and hugged her. "Anyone who messes with you is stupid," she said.

Sharpay smiled. "I know, I almost decked her in the face if it wasn't for Zeke to pull me back."

"My girl is vicious," Zeke said and hugged Sharpay after Gabriella did.

"Anyways, we're just going to party at home. Where's Troy?" Chad asked.

Gabriella jumped at the sound of his name, but she kept her composure. "In his room probably if he's not down here. I don't know, I haven't talked to him since you guys left," she said.

"What are you guys doing home so early?" Troy asked, coming from behind. He stopped next to Gabriella as he looked at the others. Troy made himself seem like he had just woken up from a nap.

"Long story short, Shar almost got into a fight so they kicked us out. Now we're home and we're going to throw a party, so get ready," Taylor said. "Make sure the deck is clear and set up the tables. Ryan and Zeke will go out to get the beers and other alcohol drinks, Sharpay, Kelsei and I will prepare any food we have and go out to get some and Chad, you make sure you call everyone and make sure the back is ready. Gabriella you can help Sharpay and I. And Troy help Chad since you know everyone," Taylor said.

Taylor, Kelsei and Sharpay left with Ryan and Zeke while Chad began to dial numbers as he headed back outside. Gabriella looked at Troy once before heading up the stairs to change. Troy trailed behind her and instead of going into his room, he pushed her into her room and this time he used the lock on her door. He pulled his shirt off and looked at her.

"Really Troy? With Chad home? I don't think so," she said as she crossed her arm. His eyes were full of hunger as he looked at her. She couldn't help but to see how sexy he looked when he wanted sex from her. His eyes were full passion and she was feeling her stomach flop. Before she knew it, he was mere inches from her face as he crashed his lips onto her and kissed her. He quickly pulled her shirt over her head and unbuttoned her pants. He took off his pants as he gently pushed her down onto the bed and hovered over her. Both of them were in their undergarments as their lips meshed together again and their tongues began to dance with each other. His hand moved to unhook her bra and when he tossed it aside, he looked at her beautiful breasts. They mesmerized him for a moment until he looked up at her brown eyes looking at his piercing blue eyes. His erection was visible behind his boxers as he pushed himself against her as he kissed her neck then down to her collarbone before moving to her breasts. She moaned when his lips touched her breasts and her fingers dug into his back.

He knew he didn't have a lot of time as they could be home any minute. He wanted to enjoy every single moment of this, but knew that if he waited too long, the moment would be over. He moved his hand down to her panties and pulled it down before tossing it aside. She was bless beautiful when she was naked. He stared in awe at her for a moment before taking his own boxers off. The two of them were now naked as he looked down at her body before looking up at her. "I want you," he said.

"Then what are you waiting for?" she whispered softly as she looked up into his eyes. He looked down at her before he positioned his erection and slid into her. She let out a loud moan when he entered her body. He let out a small groan when he completely entered her and opened his eyes to look at her. She was biting her lip as he began moving slowly. His lips met hers again as he began moving their bodies in a rhythm and their tongues were tied together. He knew that he was going to enjoy this moment just as much as she was going to.

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><p>People began arriving to the party an hour and a half after they had proposed the party. The boys were in the back working on making sure everything was ready for the party while Gabriella and the girls were in the kitchen getting snacks ready for the party. A lot of people that Gabriella had never met arrived at the party and greeted the others. She stayed in the kitchen preparing the food as the others were mingling with their friends.<p>

After she had finished with the food, she headed out to the back where everyone else was. The bonfire was lighted and people were drinking while standing around it. Gabriella stood with Taylor as she was talking to some friends she knew. A couple basketball players came and talked with Troy and Chad. She had caught his eyes when he looked over at her and she smiled softly. He smiled back at her before rejoining his conversation with his teammates.

The two of them had successfully slept together without getting caught. It went by pretty quick, but they knew that's all the time they had. She didn't know what was going to happen in the next few days, but she knew that she couldn't allow herself to do something that she would regret. She didn't know what to think of Troy. He was extremely handsome and he was a smooth talker. She knew that she was another one of his 'groupies' for sleeping with him. She wanted to know what he thought about her, but she knew she wouldn't be able to get it out of him.

"Gabriella, these are my friends from work Dianne and Sarah, they're huge fans of your work," Taylor said.

She turned to them and smiled. "It's nice to meet you guys," she said to Dianne and Sarah. "Thank you for loving my company, I've worked really hard at it."

"I heard Caroline Thomas is joining Sparkles Industry," Dianne said. "Is it true?"

She shook her head, "one hundred percent untrue," she said. "I would never let that lady work with me," she said.

"Why not?" Sarah asked.

"Because, she's a complete b-" she was cut off.

"Hey Gabs, come with me for a second!" Taylor pulled her away. "Why would you tell them that! Do you remember what I do for a living?"

"Yeah you're a journalist," Gabriella said, confused on why Taylor would pull her away.

"Exactly, they work for the press and newspaper, they'll publish anything you say! You don't want them to publish that they talked to you at a party! Noah would not be happy."

"Oh shit Tay! Do something about it!" Gabriella began to panic.

"Don't worry, I will. I'm their boss and what I say goes," she said. She hugged her friend and walked back to the two girls. Gabriella let out a small sigh and shook her head.

"Everything okay?"

She jumped at the sound of Troy's voice. She looked up at him and smiled softly. He still had the affect on her, he was still able to make her stomach flop. "I'm fine," she said. "Just some business problems that's all," she said.

He smiled and leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Anything I can do to help?" he asked.

His voice made her shiver as she stepped back, not wanting others to see them close together, especially those two girls. "No Troy, I'm fine," she managed to say.

Troy grinned and stepped away. "Are you sure? I can show you a good time," he teased her. Gabriella opened her mouth to say something back but was stopped.

"TROY!" Both of them turned to see Amber running their way.

Gabriella watched Amber throw her arms around Troy and suddenly she felt jealous. She crossed her arm as she stared Amber down behind her back.

"Oh hi Gabriella! Sorry again about the other day!" she giggled and kissed Troy on the cheek.

Troy looked at Gabriella and gave her a look as if he was saying _I don't know what she's doing here._ Gabriella rolled her eyes at Troy however and looked at the both of them. "You two have a good night," she simply said and walked away. Of course he would invite a girl to the party. She should have known she was just another one of those girls he slept with and moved on to the next. She was just stupid enough to fall for his tricks and sleep with him in the first place. Gabriella vowed to never sleep with him again, not in her lifetime.

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><p><strong>REVIEW PLEASE! It would mean so much if you took a couple seconds to review :)<strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: To those who reviewed last week, it meant so much that you took the time to review. Here's the next chapter and it'll get better each chapter!**

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><p>Chapter 8:<p>

"Are you just going to ignore me Gabi?" Troy sat at the counter while Gabriella walked around cleaning the kitchen after the party had ended. Chad and Taylor had headed to bed early although Taylor offered to help Gabriella clean. Since she didn't help much while they prepared for the party, she offered to clean up. The others were still outside sitting by the fire pit and most of the guest had left. Amber was still outside with the others as well, which pissed Gabriella off a little.

She didn't stop to look at him; instead she continued to throw the empty beer bottles into the recycling. "I'm busy right now Troy." It was half true, she did have to clean, but she also didn't want to talk to him.

"Why are you even mad right now? It's not like I did anything wrong. Are you upset that we slept together? Because as far as I know, you wanted to sleep with me too," he said.

This time, she stopped to look at him. She wasn't upset that they slept together; she was upset with herself for allowing herself to sleep with him. "I'm not mad at you, I'm just a little upset that I allowed myself to do…that. I have a fiancé and I shouldn't be sleeping with you. It was a mistake and it won't happen again," she said as she went back to cleaning.

Troy looked at her, unsure if he should believe her or not. "You're jealous aren't you? You know, because Amber's here," he said and smirked.

"You're full of yourself." She tossed a few empty plates into the sink and began washing.

"That explains why you walked away and aren't talking to me now, right?" he pushed as he stood up and walked over to her.

"Get of yourself Troy," she responded as she rinsed the dishes. She wouldn't let him have the satisfaction of getting that feeling from her. She could believe he had the audacity to say that she was jealous. Maybe she was a little jealous, but she did a damn good job of hiding it.

Troy approached behind her and his lips pressed against her ear. "It's okay, I like that your jealous," he whispered softly, before smiling against her ear. That caused her to shiver and her heart leap more than it had before. She didn't respond as she did her best to ignore him. She heard him laugh before walking out to join the others in the back. She watched him as he sat down between Sharpay and Ryan, away from Amber, which made her a little happy. She could see that Amber was trying a little too hard, as she got up from her spot and made her way into the little space between Ryan and Troy. Rolling her eyes, she focused on the dishes. She needed to get this done so she could go up to bed.

The others finally headed inside and Troy was still outside with Amber. She watched them through the blinds and shook her head slightly. Of course he was going to try to sleep with Amber. She didn't expect anything less from him anyways. Watching them, she saw them walking along the beach before hugging. Her stomach dropped again as she felt herself getting jealous again. Why was this happening to her? The dishes were done in a matter of time and Gabriella headed straight up to bed. She didn't want to look at the two of them anymore. They were both minding their own business, walking on the beach as if they were a couple.

She changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top before looking at her messy bed. She remembered that she and Troy slept together on this bed earlier and she hadn't fixed her bed since then. She was feeling a little upset right now, even though she knew she shouldn't. He was free to do whatever he wanted and she was already in a relationship with a man.

That was when her phone rang. She looked over at the caller ID and saw Noah's name appearing across the screen. Suddenly she felt guilty, so instead of answering it, she left it ringing. Not only had she cheated on him, she lost the ring he got for her.

Gabriella got into bed and pulled the covers over her. The bed already created too many memories in that short amount of time with Troy. She shook the thoughts out of her head and attempted to sleep.

"Gabi?"

Her eyes fluttered open as she turned to look at Troy standing at her door. "You need to learn to knock, seriously," she said as she pulled the sheets over her head.

"When do I ever?" he asked as he stepped into her room.

"What do you want Troy? I'm trying to sleep here," she said. "And I'm sure Amber is waiting for you in the other room."

"She went home, I sent her home," he said as she removed the covers from her eyes.

"Why?"

Troy shrugged. "I didn't want to sleep with her," he said. That was a surprising thing for Troy to hear himself say.

She couldn't believe he had said that either. "Then why are you in this room? Because you think I will sleep with you again?" she asked. "Well forget it, because I'm not., that was a one time thing."

Troy chuckled. "Oh Gabi…always assuming I want sex. I just wanted to talk," he said as he sat on the edge of her bed.

"About what?"

"I just thought I should get to know the woman I just had sex with," he said with a sly grin.

She rolled her eyes and rolled onto her side. "I want to sleep."

"Come on Gabi, I'm bored and I want to talk to you," he pulled on her sheets, revealing her in her tank top. He felt himself getting a little turned on, but told himself to cool down.

"Can't we talk in the morning?" she asked, tugging on the sheets as she felt herself being more revealed than she would like. She was honestly exhausted and wanted to sleep, but apparently Troy had other ideas.

"Fine, I'll just go watch some stupid basketball films to kill time then," he mumbled.

"You go do that," she rolled over once again and pulled the sheets over her head. She couldn't believe she actually got Troy to leave her alone finally. Normally he didn't listen to her, but now he was and he was leaving her room. The next thing she knew, she felt movement on her bed. Pulling the covers off her face, she watched Troy climb into bed next to her. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked as she sat up in her bed.

"I'm going to sleep," he simply said as if there was nothing wrong with that sentence or what he was doing.

"Go to sleep in your bed!"

Troy rolled onto his side and pulled the sheets up, "goodnight Gabi," he muttered as he closed his eyes.

She groaned and crossed her arm. "Fine! We'll talk!"

He rolled back onto his back and looked at her before flashing a grin. "That's more like it," he said as he put his hands behind his head.

She glared at him after she saw the grin on his face. "I hate you," she said. "Anyways, talk. I'm listening."

"Where were you born?" he asked.

Gabriella gave him a look as if she was saying "are you serious?". "Seriously? That's what you wanted to know?" she asked.

"I'm just making small talk. Or we can both just go to sleep now if you want," he said with the grin that she wanted to slap off his face.

"Dallas," she quickly said. "Dallas, Texas," she finished off before looking at him. Neither of them said anything for a few seconds before Troy spoke up.

"You're not going to ask me where I'm from?" he asked.

Gabriella grabbed the blankets as if she was holding herself back from hitting him. She forced a fake smile on her face as she asked, "Where were you born…Troy?"

"Albuquerque," he responded. "See was that so bad?"

Gabriella narrowed her eyes at him before releasing the grip on the blanket. "You lived their all your life until you went to college?" she asked.

He nodded his head at her, "pretty much. My dad was the coach at East High and he loved it. He put me in basketball when I was little and wanted to make sure I went to his alma mater," he said and shrugged.

"He always intimidated me," she admitted.

He raised his eyebrow and smirked. "I hear that a lot. He's actually not that bad. AS long as you don't do anything to mess with the basketball life, then he's fine with whatever goes on. I hate when he used to interfere with my life. If he thought something or someone was going to ruin my future, he'd intercept and get them out of my life. That's why no girl ever stayed long enough in my life," he told her and shrugged. "Now it's a lot easier. Since I'm in the NBA now, he doesn't care what I do as long as he gets those courtside tickets," he rolled his eyes as he admitted.

"Well at least both of you are happy with where you are," she simply said.

Troy raised his eyebrow, "what is that suppose to mean?" he asked.

"I'm just saying, your parents are happy with where you are in life with you right now, my parents, not so much. They know I'm unhappy, but they're too afraid to say anything to me because they know that I'll get upset over it," she said. "They know I love my job more than anything in the world, but they know that I'm unhappy with Noah. Our parents don't get along whatsoever, but he gets along with my parents well," she told him.

He shook his head and looked at her. "That's exactly what I don't get. You aren't happy and your parents aren't either, why can't you see that being with him isn't making anyone happy but him?" he asked. "It's a red flag if your parents don't like him or your friends," he said and shook his head.

"You don't understand Troy," she shot back.

"No? Then tell me, because I would love to understand what you're talking about," he said.

Gabriella shook her head and looked away. "Forget it," she muttered and crossed her arm again. "I don't even know why I told you all of this in the first place," she said. The two of them had shared things with each other that they knew they shouldn't have.

He sat up in the bed and looked at her. "You don't want to tell me because you don't have a damn good reason why you should stay with him. It just sucks because you know you deserve to be happy, but you don't want to," he said and stood up. "I guess I pegged you to be the wrong girl," he told her as he left the room.

She jumped a little when she heard the door slam. She looked over at the closed door and sighed slightly. She didn't understand why he was mad at her for. It wasn't like it had anything to do with him anyways. She laid back down to close her eyes, attempting to fall back asleep.

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><p>Troy walked into the house the next morning with sweat all over himself. He woke up extra early to take a morning jog before anyone else in the house woke up. By the time he got back, he was still the only one awake in the house. Last night, he didn't get much sleep for some reason, but when he eventually did, he woke up early on his own. The sun was in the sky and the sky was clear; not one single cloud in the sky. He sat down on the reclining chair on the deck and sighed. He was still a little upset with Gabriella, but he knew he had no reason to be. It was her life and he had nothing to do with it, but for some reason he felt angry a little when Noah was brought back up.<p>

Was it the fact that he was beginning to have feelings for her? It couldn't be, he never had feelings for anyone before and he wasn't planning on it anytime soon. He loved his bachelor life when he was able to sleep with whomever he wanted without having to worry about calling them the next day. He wasn't called the hottest bachelor for no reason.

He heard footsteps coming from behind him, although he didn't bother to turn around to see who it is. That was when a cup of coffee was blocking his view from the beach and he looked up to see Gabriella standing over him. A small smile was on her face as she offered the coffee, so he took the cup and placed it on the table next to him. He watched as she sat down on the chair next to him, neither of them saying anything. She sat there with knees to her chest and the cup of coffee in her hand resting on her knee.

Finally, she spoke, "are you still mad at me or whatever?" she asked softly.

He shrugged his shoulders, "whatever," he said. "It's none of my business anyways," he said as he kept his eyes on the beach.

"I'm sorry?" she asked.

"There's no reason to apologize," he said. "It's whatever, I don't care. You can be unhappy in your life if that's what you want," he said.

"It's fucking complicated okay?" she snapped on accident. She didn't like this cold shoulder that Troy was giving her.

Her language caught him off guard and he was a little taken back. "No need to swear at me," he simply said. "Just forget it, let's pretend we never brought it up," he said to her.

She drank her coffee and stared out into the beach. She wanted to know why he flipped out in the first place, but decided against it to ask him.

"What's going on out here?" Sharpay asked as she sleepily sat down on one of the chairs that were sitting outside.

"Just enjoying the view, Shar," Gabriella responded as she quickly glanced at Troy before looking back at the beach.

Sharpay yawned and allowed the sun to hit her skin. "Well we should all go take a swim today. It's suppose to be the hottest day of the week," she said as she closed her eyes. The other two nodded in agreement seeing as they had nothing else to do. "I hope your enjoying your time here Gabs, we really missed you."

She smiled and nodded her head, "of course I'm having fun, it's probably the most fun I've had in a long time and I have all of you to thank for it," she said. She quickly looked at Troy, who didn't look at her before she looked back at Sharpay. "I'm glad me and you are okay too," she said.

"Of course we are, we're the greatest friends that anyone could have," she said and smiled. "Anyways, I'm going to inform the others that we're going swimming today. Then me, you, Kelsei, and Taylor can cook lunch for the others after our swim." Sharpay got up and headed back inside while Troy and Gabriella stayed sitting outside.

"I should go change," Gabriella finally spoke as she stood up. She looked at Troy once to see if he'd look at her, but he didn't. Instead he kept his focus on the beach. Gabriella shook her head and headed upstairs to change into her bathing suit. Standing in the room she was currently staying in, she was going to miss it when she left. She looked over at the bed and the flashback of her and Troy sleeping together came into her mind and she shook it off. She was going to have to forget that as much as she could. Walking over to the window, she looked out the window and saw Troy already running towards the water.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Gabriella grabbed her phone that was on the desk and she answered. "Hello?"

"Hi baby."

"Hi Noah."

"Are you coming home yet? I miss you so much."

"I miss you too," she lied, but the way it sounded made it seem real. "I'll be home in a few days. Work will keep you busy, I'm sure."

"I was thinking. When you come back, you and me can take a trip to Paris, Milan, or where ever you want. Just the two of us."

She rolled her eyes and walked over to the window again where she looked out and stared at Troy. "I wish I could, but work won't allow me to take another vacation for a while," she said.

"Vacation? I thought you were there for work business."

Crap. Gabriella began to panic as she tried thinking of something else. "It is for work, but I consider it vacation because I'm not in New York," she simply said, hoping he'd believe her.

"Oh, right. Well don't worry about work. I'll deal with that while you just get your ass back here so we can enjoy a romantic getaway."

"Noah you don't have to do that. We can go some other time, I really don't think I should take a break from work especially when the new line coming," she said. She really didn't want to go on this trip with him.

"Don't worry about work, Caroline will take over for a few days so you can enjoy time with me okay? Look I have to go, I love you."

Gabriella looked at her phone when it disconnected and she shook her head. She hated that he could simply do whatever he wanted. She hated how he hired Caroline to join her company. She hated how he wanted her to go on a stupid trip with him when she didn't want to. Most of all she hated him. Looking down at her hand, she realized she still hadn't found her ring. She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself before heading downstairs to the beach. The others still were up getting ready while some were sitting downstairs eating breakfast. "I'm going to jump in early," she told them. She took her towel off and slowly jogged to the beach and into the water. When she got deep enough, she dived under and surfaced after her whole head was wet. The water felt good against her skin and it was a little cool. The next thing she knew, she was being pulled under and she began panicking. "Let go-" She didn't get to finish her sentence as she was underneath. A few seconds later, she resurfaced. Turning around, she saw Troy who was laughing. She hit him on the shoulder and swam away a little. "You scared me asshole!"

"Relax Gabi, I was having a little fun," he rolled his eyes and swam on his back.

"Fun? You could have killed me!"

"Oh stop being so dramatic!" he said to her as he swam around with a grin on his face. "You need to learn how to have fun," he said.

Gabriella narrowed her eyes, "I know how to have fun," she retaliated.

"Prove it," he simply said knowing that she wouldn't do anything.

She looked around the water before looking back at the house for a moment. She swam over to him, seeing that his eyes were closed. With that, she took his face and dunked him under the water, holding his head under. She could feel him beginning to panic under the water. After a while, he surfaced and spat out water.

"What the hell? You almost drowned me!" he roared.

"Stop being so _dramatic_," she taunted right back. "I know you weren't going to drown. You're stronger than me, you could have surfaced on your own yourself," she simply said as this time she swam on her back. "Learn to have fun right Troy?" she smirked as she closed her eyes.

He swam over to her and wrapped his whole arm around her waist as he swam deeper into the water.

"Let me go!"

He grinned as she tried squirming out of his grim. When he watched as a wave came, he tossed her into the wave and grinned. Waiting for her to resurface, he swam away a little.

She surfaced and looked around for him. "You're so going to pay for that," she said and swam towards him. He was laughing as she was chasing him in the water, by the time she reached him; he was splashing her with water. She laughed and moved the water out of her face. "Stop!" she said between laughs. She reached him, but he grabbed her by the waist again as he wanted to go deeper into the water. "Okay fine! You win!" she simply said. He stood swimming and let her go, but they were still extremely close to each other. She was laughing until she looked up and his face was above her, then she felt herself get nervous. His face was inching close to hers as she kept her eyes on him. "What are you doing?" she said nervously.

Troy was inching closer to her face until his lips landed on her lips. She attempted to push him away, but his grip on her waist kept her to him and finally she gave in and kissed him back. He felt her hand on the back of his neck while her other hand rested on his shoulder. He deepened the kiss as he lifted her up and her legs wrapped around his waist. His hands were now on her butt as he was the support to keep her up. He felt her mouth open a little, giving his tongue entry into her mouth. Her hands were now intertwined into his hair as her tongue danced with his.

Realizing they were out in public, she pulled away and looked at him. "We have to stop," she managed to say. There was disappointment in his eyes, but he knew they had to as their friends could see them through the windows if they haven't already. He released her as she unwrapped her legs and placed them in the water. She swam backwards slightly as Troy kept his eyes on her.

Gabriella had to keep her cool or else she'd let go of her guard. She had to swim out of the water to contain herself from sleeping with Troy once again. She walked over to the deck and sat on her towel that was already resting on the chair.

"Done swimming already?" Chad asked as he was preparing to jump into the water. "The girls are inside still, but I think I'm going to take a dive early," he said.

"Yeah I think I'm just going to lay out and tan for a bit," she said. "You go ahead though." Part of her wondered if Chad saw anything, but since he didn't say anything then he most likely didn't. She watched Chad run out into the water after Troy before she closed her eyes. The kiss was still playing on her lips as she tried to forget it although right now it was impossible.

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><p>By noon, everyone was swimming in the water while Gabriella was still laying on the deck. The guys and girls were playing a friendly game of 'Chicken' in the water and enjoying their time. Just as Gabriella felt herself falling asleep, a shadow blocked her view from the sun. She opened one eye to see Troy standing above her. "What do you want?" she asked, "you're blocking my sun."<p>

He moved aside a little and sat down on the chair next to her. "I wanted to see what you were up to," he simply said.

"I'm just tanning," she responded.

Troy looked out to the water before looking back at her. "So about that kiss…"

She knew it was coming, there was no reason to act surprise by him bringing it up. "What about it?" she asked.

"You and I both know that we both enjoyed it very much," he said with a grin on his face.

She smiled and shrugged her shoulder. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. I know you did though, that's for sure," she said, looking over to his pants and then up at him.

He looked down at his pants and smirked before looking back at her. "I'm not ashamed," he said with a shrug.

"Look, we shouldn't have kissed-" he cut her off.

"I have feelings for you," he blurted.

Gabriella opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him. "What?"

He didn't know what it felt like to have real feelings for someone, but when he saw her, his face lit up all the time and being around her made him happy. There was this feeling inside of him that made him feel funny which he never felt before and he wasn't certain what it was. Troy couldn't believe those words actually came out of his mouth. "I'm falling for you," he said again. "Or I think I am at least."

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><p><strong>REVIEW PLEASE! <strong>

**Thank you to those who reviewed last chapter. It meant a lot and I hope you all will review this chapter!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Again, I can't thank you guys enough for reviewing my story. It means a lot that you guys take the time to read it and leave me a review afterwards. I'm really proud of this story and for you guys to like it too means a lot. Here's chapter 9 of the story!**

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><p>Chapter 9:<p>

Troy wondered if those words came out of his mouth or not. Maybe he thought it though not speaking out loud. Neither of them spoke for a few minutes and her blank stare at him made it impossible for him to figure out if he actually said something to her.

"Did you hear me?"

Those words were still processing through her head at the moment. She was unsure if he meant them or if he meant to say them at all. "You like me?" That was the only thing she managed to say.

He nodded his head as he stared right back at her. It was a surprise to the both of them clearly, but she seemed like she couldn't process it through her head.

"Are you messing with me Troy so I will sleep with you again?"

He shook his head and looked away from her and focused his attention on his friends in the ocean. "No Gabi, I think I'm really falling for you. I know I shouldn't but the moment I met you I couldn't keep my mind off of you."

"I'm engaged Troy," she said.

"I know."

That's when it clicked to Gabriella that he got mad earlier due to the fact that she was in a relationship that she wasn't happy in. He wanted her to be happy, whether it was with him or not. Anyone besides Noah would've made things a lot easier for him. She didn't know what to say to him at the moment as she was lost for words. She was confused and surprised at the same time.

"You intimidate me Gabi," he admitted. "That's why I'm falling for you," he told her and smiled.

Gabriella turned away to look at her friends. She wasn't sure if she wanted to hear this right now.

"You can't say you have some sort of feelings for me," he sat up and turned himself so he was sitting facing her.

Gabriella shook her head, "I don't," she knew that was a lie just as much as he knew that was a lie. She stood up and grabbed the towel, "I'm going to head up to shower before lunch," she said as she quickly walked up the stairs. When she got into her room, she sat down on the bed and placed her hands on her face. What was wrong with her? Did she have feelings for him? There was a sudden knock on the door and she looked up, knowing exactly who it was. "Come in," she said as she exhaled.

Troy poked his head into the room before taking a step in. "Can we talk about this please?" he asked.

She stood up and walked over to the window. "There's nothing to talk about Troy," she said. She crossed her arms over her chest as she stared out the window and to the beach.

Troy walked up behind her and hesitated to put a hand on her. Instead, he stayed closed behind her and looked at the back of her head. "I'm sorry that I told you, I just thought that you should know. I never had this feeling for someone before and it's weird," he said. "I know it doesn't change the fact that you're engaged but I wanted you to know."

There was silence between them for a moment until Gabriella turned around to look at him. "Why did you have to tell me when you knew I was engaged? What did you expect? For me to leave Noah and be with you? That's not how it works Troy. I'm with someone else and you had no right to tell me that you're falling for me," her voice was rising as she continued to talk. She opened her mouth to say something else, but she was out of words.

"You can't say you don't have feelings for me," he said.

She turned back around so she wasn't facing him. If he saw her face after she responded with a no, he would have known she was lying. "I'm confused right now okay?"

"Maybe this will help," he took her shoulder and spun her around so she was facing him. He pulled her close to him and kissed her on the lips, his grip tightening on her shoulder so she wouldn't be able to pull away. This time she didn't bother pulling away; instead she melted against him and kissed him back. She was able to place her hands on his arms as he kissed her passionately. He pinned her up against the window as he deepened the kiss. She removed her hands from his shoulder and ran it up along his bare back since he wasn't wearing a shirt after swimming.

His hands released the grip on her shoulder and ran down her back as they rested on the smalls of her back. He felt her pull him close to her and her hands were now on his waist. He lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he led her over to her bed before laying her down with him over her. Troy pulled away slightly, looking down at her and smiling at the beautiful face that smiled right back at him. That was when he knew he was really falling for her.

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><p>Gabriella rested her head on Troy's chest as she circled her finger on his chest. The sheets were pulled over both of their naked bodies and he had his arm around her. Neither of them spoke as there was nothing to say to each other, but laying here while cuddling was all she needed. Instead of feeling guilty and embarrassed, she felt happy at the moment. She didn't regret sleeping with him and the thought of Noah didn't cross her mind. All that she thought about was him.<p>

"What's on your mind?" he asked her.

She tilted her head so she was looking up at him. "You," she responded.

"Oh yeah? What about me?" he asked.

She smiled and turned her head back to resting position on his chest. "Just the fact that you make me smile," she answered back. She felt him kiss the top of her head and she smiled to herself slightly.

"You're not angry at me or upset that we slept together this time?"

She giggled and shook her head. "No I'm not," she said. She knew that she liked him too the moment they began talking to each other. There was something about him that made her stomach flop and when he was around she always got nervous. She looked up to kiss him, but she heard her phone ring. Looking around, she saw her phone on the vanity table. She sighed and picked it up before looking at the caller ID. Noah. Her eyes grew wide and she looked at Troy before putting a finger to her mouth. "Please don't say anything." She sat up with the sheets covering her as she clicked the answer button. "Hi Noah."

"Hi baby. So I took care of your job and you'll have a week vacation when you get back. Caroline will take over for that week while we go on vacation."

"Noah I told you that you didn't have to do that and I don't need Caroline to help," she said as she looked at Troy who was playing with his necklace.

"I wanted to help you and I miss you so much."

"I miss you too," she said as she looked at Troy who looked at her when she said that.

"I can't wait until we get married."

The word marriage made her cringe a little as she bit her tongue from saying something she'd regret. Instead she looked at Troy as she said this, "same here, only a few more months until we tie the knot," she said. She knew she wasn't excited at all for the wedding.

With that, Troy got out of bed and pulled his swimming trunks on. He shook his head as he did that and headed towards the door.

"Noah, I have to run. Business meeting is calling for me," she said and hung up. "Troy," she called out to him as he left the room. She grabbed her robe from the chair and threw it on before walking out of her room. "Troy," she called out again.

Troy was heading back downstairs as he heard her call his name. He didn't want to stop though, he just wanted to go back outside and be with his friends.

"Troy stop," she said as she finally caught up to him on the stairs and pulled on his arm. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he muttered as he tried walking away but she had a grip on him.

"Something's up because you just walked out all pissed off," she said.

Troy shook his head and looked away, but she grabbed his chin and made him look at her. "Are you seriously asking me what's wrong? Well let me tell you Gabriella. We just made love, but you're still going back to that douche bag of a fiancé?"

"That's what this is about? You know that I have to marry this guy Troy," she simply said. "Look, what we just did was amazing and I loved every single minute of it, but my life is complicated and I can't afford to lose what's important in my life over something like this," she said.

He shook his head as he felt his blood beginning to boil. "This is what your fucking problem is! You're capable of so much Gabi, but you're so afraid of what people will think of you and what your husband can do! Sure he can get you fired from your job, but millions of people will still want to invest in you Gabriella. Don't you understand that you're one of the best fashion designers out there and that Sparkles clothing is the best seller currently? Then you tell me that you like me, but here I am hearing that you're going back to marry your fiancé. I don't get it, I don't get you." He pulled his arm away from her and walked downstairs quick enough before she could stop him again.

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><p>During lunch, the others were talking amongst each other but both Gabriella and Troy remained quiet around their friends. Whenever someone would talk to them, they'd answer with a short response and went back to eating their food. No one realized that they both were quiet except for the both of them who didn't look at each other once during lunch.<p>

"Hey Troy, everything alright? You seem a little quiet and all of us know that you're never the quiet one," Chad finally said after a while.

Troy looked up from his food. "Huh? Oh nothing, I'm fine I'm just thinking," he said.

"Are you upset because Amber didn't come over last night?" Chad teased as the others besides Gabriella laughed.

Troy shook his head, "No I don't care about that," he said.

Chad grinned, "it's okay, I'm sure you can get any girl to sleep with you. All you have to do is smile and they'll be in your bed in a second."

Gabriella looked at Chad before getting up, "I'm going to see if there's any fruits in the fridge that I should wash," she said as she quickly went inside. Taylor followed her inside and saw her resting her hands on the counter with her head down.

"Are you okay Gabs? You've been quiet at the table."

She looked up at Taylor, "I didn't think anyone noticed," she said.

"What's going on? Did Noah do something to upset you again?" she asked as she walked over to her friend.

Gabriella looked at her best friend before looking away. "There's something I have to tell you, but you have to promise you won't tell anyone. Not even Chad," she said. Taylor nodded her head, waiting to know what her best friend wanted to tell her. "Me and Troy kissed…several times," she began, but held up her hand to let Taylor know that she wasn't done. "And we slept together…. twice," she finished.

Taylor's eyes widen and her jaw dropped after Gabriella admitted what she did. "You guys did what?" she asked, knowing what she heard but that was the first thing that came out of her mouth.

"I know it's bad and I shouldn't because I have a fiancé, but I'm falling for him Tay. I'm trying so hard not to, but there's something about him that I can't stop thinking about."

"What are you going to do about Noah? Because frankly I think you and Troy would make a cute ass couple, but you and I know that Troy isn't a commitment kind of guy," she said.

"I'm going to do nothing. I can't do anything about it Tay. And yes I know he's not capable of it, but I can't help it!" She leaned against her best friend who placed an arm around her shoulder. "What do I do?"

"You know what to do Gabs, you always do."

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><p>After lunch, the others had gone upstairs to shower to get rid of the ocean smell. Gabriella stayed back as she cleaned up the mess that everyone had left on the table. Troy was sitting on one of the chairs with his eyes closed. He knew that she was out there with him, but he didn't want to talk to her right now just as much as she didn't want to talk to him. There was awkwardness in the air however and she felt it between the two of them. He was still upset with the fact after the conversation she had with her fiancé. She had to admit that he had a point with what he had said before he walked away from her, she just didn't want to admit it. She knew there was no point in trying anymore with this guy. She clearly had her mind made up and he certainly didn't like the fact that she was still with Noah. There was nothing she could do at this point when she knew she was leaving in a few short days.<p>

"Do you want another beer or something?" Gabriella finally asked as she cleaned the area around him. There were some used cups and plates on the ground as she picked them up and tossed them into the trash can.

He didn't answer her nor did he look at her. His eyes remained closed like he was sleeping and didn't hear a single thing she said. She waited for his response and once she figured out that she wasn't getting one, she went back inside the house to finish up with the kitchen. Gabriella felt extremely bad for what had happened, but there was nothing she could do now. All she wanted was to be his friend since she knew there was nothing more that could happen. At this point, he seemed like he wanted nothing to do with her.

"Hey Gabs?"

Gabriella turned her head towards the stairs since that's where the voice had came from. It was Chad and he seemed like he just got out of the shower. "What's up?" she asked.

"I need to talk to you," he looked past Gabriella and out of the house over at Troy before moving his eyes back to her. She nodded her head and headed out to the front of the house with him. She sat down on the bench while he leaned against the fence on the porch.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" she asked. She honestly had no idea what there was left to talk about. She assumed it had something to do with her and Noah or him and Taylor.

Chad seemed nervous or distant for a moment, like he was unsure how to say something. Finally he made eye contact with her, "Taylor told me about you and Troy. She told me not to say anything, but I wanted to talk to you about it before I talked to him…"

Gabriella's stomach sank when he brought it up. She figured that Taylor would end up telling Chad even though she told her not to. She couldn't blame Taylor though, Chad was her boyfriend and it was wrong to keep things from one another. She didn't know what to say or if there was anything to say at all. There was no point in lying to Chad either when he already knew the truth. All she did was nod her head as she kept her eyes on the ground.

"Gabs," he sighed. "What are you doing? You have a fiancé and here you are acting like you're not with Troy. I don't want you getting hurt and I'm positive Troy will hurt you. He's not one to get into a relationship and I know it won't work out between the two of you."

Gabriella looked up at Chad for a moment. "I know, I shouldn't have done it, but I think I'm falling for him Chad," she said softly. "There's something about him that keeps me on my toes, I love that feeling. With Noah, and me things aren't as spontaneous as it is with Troy. Troy makes me laugh and smile, he frustrates me, but I don't hate him like I do with Noah. I just don't know what to do."

"Well figure it out before everyone gets hurt, especially you and I really don't want to see that," he said.

She nodded her head, "do you really think he's not capable of falling in love?" Gabriella asked.

"At this point, it's hopeless."

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><p>Later that night, everyone in the house got dressed to go out on a nice night like this. Gabriella was in her room, putting on her dress, it hugged her body nicely and fit all the right curves. It was a black sequence dress and she had black pumps to go with it. She added some gold jewelry to her wardrobe before going into the bathroom and curling her hair. The best thing about working at Sparkles Industry was the amount of clothes they had given her. She loved the dress she was wearing and she was glad she got a local designer to make it for her. After she did her hair, she applied makeup to her face for the finishing touches. Soon after she was done, she stepped back from the mirror and looked at herself. Content with how she looked like, she exited her room and at the same time, Troy had left his room as well. The two of them were in the hallway and once Gabriella turned, she saw him and the two of them made eye contact with each other. What felt like forever, only turned out to be a few short seconds before Troy looked away and walked down the stairs. Gabriella was a little upset and disappointed that he walked by without saying a thing to her or complimenting how she looked. Gabriella headed down the stairs where the others were already finished getting ready.<p>

"Damn Gabriella, you look good!" Zeke said as he sat with his arms around Gabriella. He looked over at Sharpay, who he thought would get mad but all she did was smile at Gabriella.

She smiled at Zeke and looked at the others, "thank you," she said to him.

"I love the dress! Where did you get that?" Sharpay asked.

"Lily, a fashion designer in New York designed it and gave it to me, I love it," she told Sharpay before taking a seat.

Chad walked down the stairs as he finished getting dressed, "Taylor will be done soon and we can all head out," he said. He looked over at Troy who looked busy and in his own world. "You okay Troy?" he asked.

Gabriella looked over at Troy at this point and she felt bad still for what had happened.

"I'm fine," Troy managed to say. "I'm just so ready to go out tonight and party it up," he said. He quickly glanced at Gabriella before looking up at Taylor who was quickly walking down the stairs.

"Okay I'm ready, let's go!"

The group headed down to the nightclub in downtown Los Angeles. They were able to skip the line as Chad and Troy were on the VIP list. There were paparazzi's outside taking pictures and Gabriella managed to sneak on by without getting recognized. Once they were inside, they all headed to the VIP booth where there were drinks for them. Chad and Taylor had gone onto the dance floor first while the others sat down with each other.

The rest of them sat around with each other, enjoying drinks and talking amongst one another. Troy and Gabriella made zero contact with each other however while the conversations was going on. Half an hour later, the others wanted to dance with each other.

"Want to dance?" Zeke asked Sharpay. She nodded her head and the two of them stood up and headed for the dance floor.

"Kelsi, let's dance!" Ryan said as he placed his hand out for her.

She shook her head, "I don't know how," she said.

He smiled, "don't worry, I'll teach you," he grabbed her hand and led the two out on the floor. Gabriella watched them and she wished they didn't leave so she wasn't sitting here with Troy alone. The silence between the two of them was killing her and all she wanted was to go home at this point. She debated on saying something to him, but before she knew it, a man approached her.

"I was looking from afar and noticed that you weren't dancing, maybe I can show you a good time?" he asked.

She looked up at him as she was sitting and politely smiled at the man. "No thank you," she said. "Thanks for asking though."

He chuckled and looked around before looking back at her. "Come on, just once dance. I guarantee you that you'll enjoy your time with me, I'm sure you'll want to go home with me after you see my moves."

This guy was disgusting. She kept the polite smile on her face as she shook her head once again. "I'm flattered that you want to dance with me, but I'm fine for now."

"I'm only going to ask once, the moment I'm gone you won't have another opportunity."

Troy was listening to their conversation as he did his best to not look at the two of them. Eventually he found himself looking from the corner of his eyes and he could see Gabriella getting a little uncomfortable with the man. He turned his head and looked at the guy, "Dude, she said no, leave her alone," Troy said calmly.

The man looked at Troy and realized it was Troy. "You're Troy Bolton from the Lakers?"

Troy nodded his head. He was used to people recognizing him so he didn't care too much.

"It's a shame your Lakers are going to lose to the Celtics. I was born and raised in Boston," he said with a smirk. "Your shitty ass team is going to get swept."

Troy wanted to yell at the guy, but he kept his cool. "That's good to know."

The man turned back to Gabriella. "You're seriously wasting your time with this guy just because he's a basketball player? Well sweetheart, I make more money than he does," he sat down as he put an arm around her shoulder.

Gabriella took his arm and moved it from her shoulder and scooted away. "I'm not interested," she said. This time she didn't have a polite smile on her face; instead she had a mad and scared look on her face.

Troy took notice of this and stood up before getting into the guy's face. "Don't you touch her again!" he said as he pushed the guy. The guy got up and got in Troy's face.

"Don't tell me what to do," he shouted back as he pushed Troy. Troy barely budged as the guy pushed him. Gabriella attempted to pull Troy back, but she didn't want to get hit. Troy was prepared to punch the guy, but the security had arrived before Troy could swing. They pulled Troy out of the VIP booth and out the back with Gabriella trailing behind him.

"Bolton, I'm going to have to throw you out. I can't have you punching people, especially when the game is coming up," the bouncer said as he closed the door. Troy clenched his fist, as he wanted to hit something, so instead he kicked a box on the ground.

Gabriella was a little frighten at this as she never seen someone get this angry before. She stood by the door with her clutch in her hand. The music from the club was blaring through the walls and she could see some cars passing by past the alley. "Are you okay?" she asked him softly.

He didn't answer or look at her at first, but when he did, his eyes were dark and she was a little scared. He noticed that she looked a little scared, so he lightened up a little.

"You didn't have to push him you know. I could have taken care of him myself," she said softly.

Troy chuckled sarcastically. "Yeah right, if it wasn't for me, he'd probably still be trying right now," he said.

"He would have left me alone if I asked him nicely," Gabriella said.

He rolled his eyes, "Are you that oblivious?" he asked her. "You should be thanking me," he said.

"Thank you," she said softly. Her voice was quiet as she was still a little scared of the angry Troy. She really was glad Troy was around. If it was Noah, he wouldn't have been by her side and he'd blame it on her if something like that happened to her.

"Whatever," he mumbled as he walked out of the alleyway. "Let the others know I took a cab home," he said. He had only been there for forty-five minutes before getting kicked out.

Gabriella bit her lip as she looked at her clutch. "I can go home with you if you want me to," she said.

He shook his head, "no, enjoy your last Friday here while you can," he said.

"I don't want to spend it at the club," she said softly as she trailed behind him as he waved a cab. "You can't be mad at me forever Troy," she finally said.

"I'm not mad," he said.

She didn't believe him one bit. "Liar," she said.

"I just don't like your choice in life," he said with a simple shrug. Once the cab stopped, he got in and she got in after him. The two of them sat on either ends with the middle seat vacant. Gabriella didn't say anything to him, as she knew there was nothing else left to say. "Do you really want to spend the rest of your life unhappy with that Noah guy?"

Gabriella finally snapped again. "What's it to you? Why does it even matter what I do with my life? You have your own life to worry about and you're free to do whatever you want. We both know you're not capable of falling in love, so why should I waste what I have for something that could or couldn't work out, I'm not taking that chance Troy," she said.

"You think I'm not capable of falling in love?" he asked her.

She nodded her head, "That's right," she said.

He shook his head as he looked out the window, "get to know someone before you judge them," he mumbled.

She looked at him as she raised her eyebrow, "what is that supposed to mean?" she asked him.

"Believe it or not, I have been in love," he said. "No one knew, she was from North Carolina. I fell head over heels for this girl in such a short amount of time. Neither Chad nor my parents knew about it and she wanted to go public with it. My publicist finally found out about it when I told them she wanted to go public. They said no as it was going to be bad for my reputation to have a girlfriend and I stupidly listened to them and before I knew it, she was gone." He kept his eyes on the building outside of the windows. "After that, I told myself 'what's the point of falling in love again?' and that's why everyone thinks I'm not capable of falling in love," he said and shrugged his shoulders.

Gabriella listened as he told his story. She would have never guessed that something like that would happen to Troy. It must have killed him to lose someone he really cared about when they meant the world to him. "So what happened to her?" he asked.

"Last I heard she's married and has a baby girl," he said. "I lost touch with her after I told her I couldn't become public. She works in New York last I heard as well," he said and shrugged.

"Do you ever regret the decision you made?" she asked.

"Every single day for a year," he said. "I kept myself busy with basketball and eventually I got over it. I'm happy for her, she seems happy. I just wish I had the opportunity to apologize for her," he said.

She stared at him for a few seconds; the look on his face seemed true and she knew she believed him. "So it's not more of a 'why fall in love' situation, it's more like you have your guard up," she said.

He shrugged his shoulders, "what's the difference?" he looked at her for a moment. "When I told you that I didn't know what the feeling inside was, I was lying. I knew exactly what it was, but I never thought I would bring this story up ever again," he said. "But since you said I'm not capable of loving, I just had to prove you wrong."

She smiled half-heartedly. "Well you have proved me wrong," she said.

"Falling in love is so complicated and I never thought I'd fall for someone ever again after the last girl, but you changed that for me. I've never met someone that excites me and frustrates me at the same time until I met you," he said. It killed him that she was with someone else and no matter what he tried, she was going to go back to him. "Spending time with you was something I'm not going to regret and trust me when I say that you're someone I'm never going to forg-" he was cut off by a pair of lips on his lips.

Troy pulled away from the pair of lips on his lips. "What are you doing?" he asked as he looked down at Gabriella who opened her eyes. She placed a finger on his lip and kissed him again. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders as she felt him put a hand on her waist. The two exchanged deep and passionate kisses until the cab stopped. Troy paid the man before taking Gabriella out of the cab and leading her into the house. The house was dark and quiet- there was no one around to bother them tonight.

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><p><strong>I hope you guys liked this chapter! Review and let me know please :)<strong>


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